Your Good Friday robot-fix from the DOD

Donna Cusano

Not really intending to post on this Good Friday, Editor Donna had to share this latest edition of the US Department of Defense’s (DOD) Armed with Science. ‘Robots with Faces’ presents some of the work going on at the Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research (LASR), located at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C. The lab does concentrate on battlefield conditions–fighting fires on land and sea, locating IEDs, seeing in sandstorms–but additionally on the role of cognition (acting and reacting like a person) and facial expressions on these workhorse robots. Meet Lucas (cognitive), Octavia (the fire-fighter), the Pectoral Fin Swimmer, and ‘feeling’ (tactile) robots. Now imagine these advances making their way into the home for an older and/or disabled person, hospital or rehabilitation facility. Robots with Faces