Question: What made you want to make a robot for disabled people

Conor McGinn answered on 28 Feb 2016:

Hi Danielle,
I think this answer has two parts. Firstly I’m very much fascinated by robots and artificial intelligence. I think there is something mind-blowing about being able to build machines that can do the things humans do and show intelligence, or at least show behaviours that we call intelligent when people/animals do them. From the age of maybe 19 I knew I wanted to work in robotics.
Once I knew I wanted to work on robotics, I think the next thing was to decide on what type of robots I wanted to work on. I’m fundamentally against using robots for war or fighting so that was out. As far as developing robots for people with disabilities, I guess I saw a great opportunity to do something positive and something that I felt was really needed. I think engineers have a huge responsibility to make sure their work is ethical and will benefit people. So for me as long as the robots didn’t harm anyone, I was pretty open to any direction the work could go.
So back on point.. In general everyday items are developed for the ‘average person’ – so they work ok for maybe 90% of the population. But for the remaining 10% life can be difficult. And from an engineering perspective, its a real challenge to do anything about this because within that 10% there is huge variance. So for example lets take a simple door handle. 90% of people can use it no problem. In 10% that have problems, one might have problems because they are old and have arthritis, one might be blind, one might have had their arm amputated, one might not have much finger/wrist strength – you get the idea.. So with a robot, like the ones I work on, I saw a real opportunity to develop something that would be like a pet for people. Like a pet it can provide comfort and company. However it can also do really useful things like open the door for someone, and it makes no difference why that the person cant open the door. I think this technology is going to change this world for the better in a major way – I really do.