Page 175 - Modern Robotics Building Versatile Macines

CYBORG ODYSSEY 155

I WAS THERE: ROBOT BUMPER CARS

Early versions of the University of Reading’s “Seven Dwarfs” robots
could be rather disconcerting and occasionally dangerous. As
Warwick recounted in March of the Machines:

In the pre-Seven Dwarf era, however, even more powerful motors were
used, coupled with open gear boxes. These first robots would hurtle
around the laboratory at breakneck speed, crashing into walls and doors.
They were, therefore, designed with metal bumpers at the front and with
a sturdy frame.
Another early problem to overcome was that of stopping a robot once
we had started it. Catching a rapid transit autonomous robot with an
open gear box, in full flight, was quite dangerous, with a serious chance of
injury. More often than not we simply had to wait until the robot’s battery
had run flat and then reclaim it.

Perhaps the Reading experimenters might have learned from the
modern sport of Robot Wars (or Battlebots), in which heavily armed
and armored remote-controlled robots engage in the arena in gladi-
atorial combat. Besides remote controls, these robots are equipped
with safety interlocks that can disable the machine without a person
having to get too close.

Warwick’s first tentative step into the world of implants only whetted
his appetite for a more profound connection. It would be one in which
he would not only be “read” by machines but also would communicate
with them directly via the signals in his nervous system. He would take
the next big step toward becoming a new type of being—a cyborg.

From Humans to Cyborgs

The word cyborg is short for “cybernetic organism.” (A more or
less equivalent term is bionic organism, meaning biological plus