Nimble Robot 'Katana' Is Safe Round People

Like the vast majority of assembly line robots, Katana is a moving arm.
But that's where the resemblance ends. Unlike the hulking robotic arms
used on assembly lines, Katana is designed to work next to humans.

According to Werner Klecka of Swiss developer Neuronics AG, Katana
is the European Union's first robot certified as inherently safe.
Neuronics designed the small robotic arm to work with people the same
way a nurse works with a surgeon.

That means changing conventional robot physiognomy.
Like more powerful industrial robots, Katana uses several small motors
for six- axis motion (up-down, left-right, and diagonally back-and-forth).
But unlike larger robots, which need massive power supplies, it uses a
laptop computer-style power supply that plugs into a wall socket.

Slow and weak does not mean incapable.
Katana is designed for precision work. With one conductivity, four force,
and nine infrared sensors, its gripper is sensitive enough to place
objects with 1/250th of an inch accuracy. An optional video camera also
lets it recognize shapes.

Best of all, Katana does not take a robot expert to set up and operate.
Users can move the robot arm where they want it to go manually, and
then improve their rough positioning using control software.
The robot comes with neuronal software that actually learns on the job
and gradually improves Katana's ability to make decisions.


SOURCE:
LiveScience.com

Very cool robot.

Admittedly it's not something you'd see in everyday life, but it
can/could play some very important roles and be a great help
in medical and chemical science, as well as mass production
of small intricate things.


Comments, Opinions?

[edit on 11/2/2006 by iori_komei]

for a comment you made in a forum about virus moving at speed of light i agree virus can't but you said u can't move at the speed of light if it has matter but everything has matter to some degree even the smallest thing in the universe for example if light had no matter how would a black hole be able to bend light and light has made of waves for the most part if so which i believe nothing can be refracted or reflected without mass if light had no mass which you're saying it would most like not be stable enough to notice or in the common sense of all things get from the sun to the earth.

Well, you could have just asked me in that thread, but whatever.

To answer your question..

Light, which is made of photons, is a unique thing, it is both a wave
and a particle at the same time, it has no mass.

Quantum Singularities (Black-Holes) can bend light because their
gravity field is so immensely strong that it's capable of bending it,
gravity, although being the weakest force, is incredibly strong.

Light is reflected because the photon bounces off of something that
has little to no 'holes' for the light/photons to pass through, since
you can't destroy energy, it has to go somehere, hence it reflecting
or bouncing off what it hits.