robots helping people

8/8/2019 Robots helping people

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As a student of all t hings design, itfascinat es me when I encount er a sub-

ject t hat is technologically oriented,well-designed, and focused on help-ing people as well. When the subjectis as cool as somet hing like robot s,

t hat rare intersect ion between design,t echnology, and humanit y, my excite-ment nearly doubles. Ron Rizzo repre-sent s t his rare breed of know-howmeets compassion. With knowledge ofrobot ics, comput er science, elect ricalengineering, and a passion for helpingpeople -- he has forged a path-- bot hfor his students t o learn, and t o helpt he communit y, t oo.

Ron is a man whose passion is to makerobot s, but really his passions runsmuch deeper t han t hat . As a staff en-gineer at Western, Ron helps studentslearn robot ics. But t hen he also makesrobot s t hat are used in many aspect sof civic service f rom urban researcht o search and rescue missions. Per-haps a more import ant calling of his ist o use t his knowledge t o help people

wit h rheumatoid art hrit is and disabili-t ies that keep t hem f rom being able t obend down, something most of us takefor granted. This passion has culminat -ed in him founding his company Abilit y Robot ics . It seems t hat inhelping others he t ruly finds his joy.

So let s begin . . .

WK: How are you doing t oday?

RR: Doing just fine.

WK: I just want ed an int roduct ion towhat you do with your st udents, andwe can t ake t his as a jumping of f pointespecially with what your vision is withrobot s and robot ics.

Robotics

helpingpeople

by Will Kotheimer

Ron Rizzo, a western faculty member, poses with someof his favorite microprocessors. He uses them to make

robots. Photo by Will Kotheimer.


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RR: Okay. Im employed by t he Universit y. Iman elect romechanical engineering t echnologist .I received my f our year degree f rom Western,was a project engineer at a local firm for fiveyears then got t he opport unity t o come t o t heUniversit y as a st aff engineer primarily in elec-t ronics and computer support but a lot of mypassion is in t he field of robot ics, automat ion,and programming t ype applicat ions. So for t hedepart ment I support all of t hese project s t hatwe have going on t he elect rical side, f rom ro-bot ic compet it ions to printed circuit boards,t o creat ing visual basic code t o anyt hing t hatpert ains on the elect rical side.

WK: So how does a robot work?

RR: First you have t o get a definit ion of what it sgoing t o do, because t hat usually guides howyou are going t o design it . A robot can consistof something that moves around the floor t osomet hing t hat performs cert ain t asks forindividuals. A robot can be autonomous, it canbe RC cont rolled, it can be cont rolled by using

. . .sometimes we

deal with things with-

in elements. Its in

a cave, it has to go

along the border of

Mexico looking for

tunnels, the ambient

temperature being 110degrees.


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I

am someone interested in all things which touch our lives in the interface between design, technol-

ogy, and humanity, and Ron Rizzo was a serendipitous ind for an interviewer like me. With knowl-

edge of robotics, computer science, electricity, and a passion for helping people, Ron runs the gamutof know-how meets compassion. After all, his projects are above all about helping people, both his

students and the world at large.

As a staff engineer at Western, he is both gregarious and eager to help students, not and lacks the

stuffy demeanor of someone who pursues knowledge to make himself bigger in others eyes, or for

its own sake. This was one of the things about Ron that I enjoyed the most, that in helping others he

truly found his life calling. This story begins with an interview about a man who makes robots, but

its really much more than that.

So lets begin . . .

WK: This is Will Kotheimer at the EBS building with Ron Rizzo. And hes a staff engineer at Western

Kentucky University in the robotics area. How are you doing today?

RR: Doing just ine.

WK: I just wanted an introduction to what you do with your students, and we can take this as a jump-

ing off point especially with what your vision is with robots and robotics.

a push but t on, a joyst ick. . . t heres so many diff erent applica-t ions of a robot . So t he first part of it is t o ident ify what is yourt ask, what do you want it t o do, and from t here you start t o

go t hrough your design. You look at your hardware, your soft -ware. The element s somet imes we deal wit h t hings wit hin ele-ment s underwat er, it s in a cave it has t o go along t he borderof Mexico looking for t unnels, t he ambient t emperature being110 degrees. So t hat s a variable you have t o look int o. Theend user, who is going t o use t his robot ? How do you operat et he thing is also very import ant ? So when you say robot t hereare so many possibilit ies for it , so you really just look at whatyou are looking for it t o do.

WK: You ment ioned soft ware programs, and I am learning

Visual Basic myself . When most people t hink of soft ware it srunning somet hing on screen, but here it s running somethingout in t he real world. How is t he interface between t hat , and ist hat somet hing t hat is easy t o explain?

RR: On t he applicat ion side of t hings, and here in my lab I have

Robots

are onlyas smart as

the person

developing

it.


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Phot o by Will Kotheimer

robot s that run soft ware int ernally, so youhave t o program it . And when you programit t o do a certain task t hat s using soft warelanguage that s t hen loaded t o a micropro-cessor. From t here it now cont rols eithert he turning of a wheel, t he flashing of a light ,t he movement of an arm. So t he processorcont rols it , but you as a designer programt hat processor to do what it needs t o do.

That is one applicat ion. Anot her applica-t ion is someone sit t ing behind a comput erscreen and cont rolling, so we could do t hatt hrough radio f requency, we could do thatt hrough infrared light ing, I could do thatt hrough wireless. I have a robot t hat is actu-ally wi-fi cont rolled. So on a computer youpush a joyst ick, the comput er t hen sendsout a code over t he Et hernet , and t he robot

detects on it . Voice act ivat ed, t heres textt o speech, t heres so many variet y of wayst o cont rol a robot.

WK: So t he input s are chosen, and t hey t ell

t he robot , okay I want you t o move your armt o t hese coordinates. . .

RR: You as a programmer t ell it . Robot s areonly as smart as t he person developing it ,because AI hasnt been developed. Art ificialintelligence is coming around but t heres somuch that needs t o be learned in t hat fieldt o handle all of t he vast variet y of variablest hat it has to deal wit h.

So let s t ake a sit uat ion. . .somet hing t hatIm working wit h, and t hat s individualst hat suff er from rheumat oid art hritis. Fort hem t o be able t o negot iat e t heir day t oday act ivit ies the variables in a personsenvironment is ever changing, so as a pro-grammer you either have t o deal with hereare variables that I can program around andfrom t heir t he robot has to make decisionst o help negot iat e the movement of a t able,

t he individual moved a table f rom t his loca-t ion t o t hat locat ion, now t he robot needst o deal with t hat , or you know, t heres anobstacle in it s way. So now, how do I negot i-ate around t hat , so as a programmer I canput variables t hat I know but t hen give it t heinst rument at ion t o allow it t o make somedecisions. Now how much of t hose decisionscan I make, so it s not t hinking on it s own allt he t ime, t heres st ill limits on what t hosedecisions can be. But it does have t he abilit y

t o go hmm. . . theres something in my way,maybe I need t o t urn right .

WK: How can robot s help humans and whatkinds of human cent ered applicat ions aret here? Maybe just ment ion a few of t hemt hat you are working in specifically.

RR: They are everywhere. If you t hink about


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I am someone interested

in all things which touch

our lives in the interface

between design, technol-

ogy, and humanity, and

Ron Rizzo was a ser-endipitous ind for an

interviewer like me. With

knowledge of robotics, computer science, electricity, and a passion for helping people, Ron runs the

gamut of know-how meets compassion. After all, his projects are above all about helping people,

both his students and the world at large.

As a staff engineer at Western, he is both gregarious and eager to help students, not and lacks the

stuffy demeanor of someone who pursues knowledge to make himself bigger in others eyes, or for

its own sake. This was one of the things about Ron that I enjoyed the most, that in helping others he

truly found his life calling. This story begins with an interview about a man who makes robots, but

its really much more than that.

it , your car has comput ers. You look atcars now that can det ect cars behind you,object s to t he side, park a car for you. Soindividuals use them everyday. A projectIm working on now is for t he transport ation

department . We are using a robot t o inspecta cave. We use t hem for search and rescue,for body ident ification and recovery f ordrown vict ims, for people wit h disabilit ies,

for homeland securit y, f or entertainmentsomet imes. Somet imes even t he simplest

t hings you can t hink of have it s own merit .So robot s are used in more places t han youcan t hink of you dont t hink of well maybet hat car is making a decision I t hought Iwas in cont rol. Well not always.

WK: Im not sure when t his came about ,maybe back in t he fort ies or fift ies. But t hewhole idea of t he robot was popularized by

Isaac Asimov and probably earlier t han that ,but t he idea of cybernet ics, which came outof needs created by people who neededprost het ic limbs and even now t hey haverobot s in factories where if t he work is t oo

dangerous and maybe even just t oo bor-ing. In fact I read just checking Wiki that t hename Robot came from t he Czech word fordrudge work.

RR: Well Bill Gates saidt hat here short ly heexpects robot s to be inevery house.

WK: You mean like t hatcart oon t he Jetsons?

RR: And unfort unatelywhen most people t hinkof robot ics, like a lot ofmy robot s when I int ro-duce t hem as assistedliving devices f or indi-viduals, first t hing t hatcomes t o t heir mind is

Rosie . Oh, does itlook like Rosie? No, it snot a humanoid t ype ofrobot . That has a wholediff erent set of crit erias

of t o t ry t o go upright. But it is a robot t hathelps people wit h disabilit ies. So yes, a lot ofour cart oons and just childhood t hings kindof lend t hat but Bill Gates said t hat robot swill be in every house very short ly.

WK: Maybe we should concent rate on t hatdisabilit y quest ion. Because I am very inter-ested in t his blog in how various technolo-gies can help people.

RR: Well t he company I got t o develop is forassisted living devices because t here areover seven million people last year who suf-fered from simple art hrit is. Who are unable

This robot was created by Ron t o work in acave syst em t hat runs below a neighborhood.Phot o by Will Kotheimer


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t o bend, st oop, and pick up it ems, so in mymind how do t hey deal wit h t he day t o dayact ivit ies. We t ake for grant ed I can bendover and pick up that t owel. In most sit u-at ions people on disabilit y or who have a

disabilit y are eit her let go f rom t heir currentposit ion because t hey can no longer performt hat t ask which then puts t hem on some sortof social securit y, medicare, or Medicaid, sot hey were not quit e ready for t heir ret ire-ment is what Ive discovered. So t hey areliving in smaller environment s and are unablet o redesign t heir house. So if I am not able t ostoop down to pick up a can of f ood, how do Ideal wit h that ? So a lot of t imes what t heylldo is that t hey will move it up to t he t op of

t he count er. They t ry t o use the house t hebest t hey can, but t hat s not t he best or t hesafest environment for t hem, so that s whatI focused on how t o assist even the simplet ask on gett ing a glass of water.

WK: What considerat ions t o you t ake intoaccount when designing a robot . For in-stance, you might t ell it t o go this far, butnot f art her?

RR: Some t hings are learned. And t hen someof it you just kind of learn t alking t o t he enduser What do you need? and then you de-sign around t hat you know, because maybeit s somet hing as simple as grabbing a bot t ledwater, t hat we take for grant ed because it ssomething I can do everyday. I can walk to afridge and grab a bot t le of wat er. But somepeople cant do t hat so, if t hat is t he needt hen that is what you st art t hinking about .Okay how does t his robot get f rom A t o B, B

t o C, C t o D? How do you open a f ridge?

WK: A lot of st eps that you just t ake forgranted.

RR: Yes exact ly! Because when I am t hinkingabout t hose applicat ions. I even t alk t o stu-

Ron developed t his robot and gave it t o his wife to help wit h the yard work. Phot o byWill Kot heimer


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dents about t hat because our f reshman havet o build an aut onomous robot . Or we dealwith fourt h, fif t h, and sixth graders doingrobot ic competit ions and act ivit ies. And alot of t imes I will say, okay boom, you are t he

robot , walk f rom here to here now what didyou do to go from here t o here? So t hat isrobot ics in a sense. In your mind, you do t hatalready. Now you just have t o t ell t hat robott o do it . So t hat is the programming side, butt he mechanical side is now how do you physi-cally design? Well t hat s years of using 3 -Dpackages, Arduinos, learning how t o ma-chine. Ive built my own C and C devices, Ivelearned what I needed t o f abricat e, becauseif I can t hink it , I can see it , I just can physi-

cally make it right now . So t hen you start t odo t he physical, t he hardware side of it .

WK: How do you say t hat , Arduino?

RR: AR-duino? Ive used parallaxes, arduinos,HC-12s, HC-11s, At mel ATt iny, ATmega,sanguino, what s another arduino family?Again, if you are passionate about it , youwant t o explore t hem all.

WK: Ron, how did you get into t his field?

RR: What kind of started it . Several things.One of t hem is just being an elect rical engi-neer. You always have t he passion t o want t ocont inue educat ing. I started on one micro-processor and then got inspired by anot herand anot her and another, to components, toa variet y of diff erent mot ors, mot or-control-lers. When I was a very young engineer, right

out of college I was working with an oldergent leman, who was about t o make a move,his division was being t ransferred t o PuertoRico, and I got t he opportunit y t o work withhim and meet t he guy. I said, you are aboutt o be phased out , but you are always a happyguy, how do you do it ? He said, just becauseI am not here doesnt mean Im st ill not go-ing to enjoy being an engineer. What youhave to do, you got t o love what you are

doing. And I kind of t ook t hat and grew upont hat , because if I enjoy playing wit h micro-processors, or building robot ic devices orwhatever it is. I also do woodworking. I lovebuilding things. You know. It s not a job, it s

your passion. It could be phot ography. Soyou become good because you enjoy doingt hat and you want t o do t hat . So t hat kindof let me down the path of elect ronics androbot ics. Now t he assisted living devices Iwas inspired by just t alking t o people andunderst anding t hese people are suff eringfrom t hese disabilit ies but yet t heres not h-ing t here to assist t hem. If I had a broken hipI could get a wheelchair, or use crut ches, ifI have a broken leg, but if you are suff ering

from arthrit is or loss of limbs, t heres not h-ing there for you. So t hat is a passion, t hatt hese are real people, that I have spokenwith. One gent leman in Houston Texas t hat It alk t o he has t o stop me half-way t hroughsome of our phone conversat ions. He says,Ron it just hurt s me too bad, I cannot con-t inue t his. And that s real world. How canyou live like that ? So t hat has inspired a pas-sion, you know, someones got t o help t hesepeople. Theres got t o be help for t his.

So t hat s what s t aken me down the path ofassist ed living devices and t aken my knowl-edge of t en years in being passionat e aboutelect rical engineering and playing wit h t hemicroprocessor and t he wireless modulesand to incorporat e that int o a robot ic devicet o hopefully help somebody t hat is suff ering.

robots helping people

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