Three Technion-related projects at the Hi-Tech and Innovation Fair to be visited  by President Obama next week.

Snake robots for urban search and rescue

Prof. Alon Wolf is a professor of mechanical engineering at the Technion. He will demonstrate an urban search and rescue (USAR) snake robot.

Earthquakes and other disasters emphasize the need for these robots in assisting rescue workers in unreachable or unsafe places. Snake robots can use their many degrees of freedom to reach deeply into the nooks and crannies of an affected area with minimal invasiveness and disturbance. This is important for search and rescue operations where every minor shake to the building can cause further collapses. With a camera and microphone deployed at the distal end of the robot and other sensors along its body, rescue workers can more quickly locate survivors and diagnose problems.

Initial development of the snake robot was undertaken in collaboration with the world-renowned Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. A smaller snake robot, with surgical applications, is being developed, and constitutes the core technology of the Boston-based company Medrobotics, founded by Prof. Wolf and two colleagues from Carnegie Mellow and the University of Pittsburgh.

ReWalk – Enabling parapalegics to walk

ReWalk is a motorized exoskeleton that restores ambulation functions of people with lower limbs paralysis. Paraplegics that use the ReWalk are able to ambulate in the community and to perform all basic functions such as stand up, walk, climb stairs and sit down. Last year, paralyzed British woman Claire Lomas used a ReWalk to become the first person ever to finish a marathon using a bionic assistance suit.

ReWalk was invented by Technion graduate Dr. Amit Goffer, himself a quadriplegic, and will be demonstrated by Mr. Radi Kaiuf, who was paralyzed from waist down during his IDF service.

ReWalk is developed by by Argo Medical Technologies, which in the past decade has grown from a small R & D start-up based in Israel to an international company with headquarters in the US, Germany and Israel. Argo has been working in the U.S. and internationally with leading rehabilitation centers in testing and developing a rehabilitation model of the ReWalk.  In the United States, the ReWalk rehabilitation is currently deployed in rehabilitation clinics and the ReWalk Personal is awaiting FDA clearance.

 

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Special Category – Future Scientists: Robot Waiters

A “robot waiter” developed by junior high school students from Haifa, under the guidance of researchers from the Technion’s Department of Education in Technology and Science, won “Best Humanoid Robot” title in an international competition which took place in Connecticut, USA, in 2012.

The robot waiter was designed and programmed as a model of an autonomous robot that will serve a disabled person in his or her home – for example, will go to the refrigerator, take food and carry it to that person. The robot, with a height of about 35 cm (about 13.8 inches) uses sensors to to overcome obstacles in its way, is a capable of performing a variety of movements.