Having overlooked this year's 'Robotics Week' last month I (Ed. Steve) thought I'd make amends by doing something I've intended to do for some time. That is, visit Robosoft's HQ in Bidart, in the Basque Country in South West France.

Did what I saw convince me that the future of telecare is on wheels?

At the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 3 May 2010, the French company Robosoft made its robuBOXKompaï software development kit of the Kompaï R&D robot (see TA item Robots in care: roundup), open source to promote care robot development.
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iRobot’s new robotic hand, developed for DARPA’s Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program, takes a licking and keeps on ticking, like the old Timex commercial. See the hand’s fingers, holding a baseball, ‘teed off’ by a baseball bat in the article
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This is the most interesting robots article editor Steve has read for a long time, and does encourage one to think yes, robots could be the future of telecare (see Robosoft report). Technologist Paul Marks reports in New Scientist on
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Japanese fascination with androids notwithstanding, most people don’t feel comfortable with robots if they look too human, so Robosoft are probably on the right track with their service robots such as Kompaï. (TA report.) Now researchers have been delving into
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…for those who can’t.  This SmartPlanet article rounds up four exoskeleton-type systems that assist users in walking and climbing stairs.  What they have in common are true mobility and that, with FDA approvals and right financing, can go to market
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It’s National Robotics Week in the USA, so it is an appropriate time to round up a whole series of care-related robot items. It seems that a lot of robotics research is driven by the idea that the only way
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