Trinity engineers come up with robot to assist Joanne O’Riordan
A new robot has been unveiled in Dublin that could become the arms and legs for Cork teenager Joanne O'Riordan.
She is one of only seven people in the world born with Total Amelia, which means she has no limbs, and she issued a challenge in April 2012 for someone to design a robot to help her do everyday things.
A prototype called Robbie the robot has been designed by a team of engineers at Trinity College in Dublin, costing around €50,000.
Assistant Professor at the school of Engineering, Kevin Kelly, says Robbie will prove that what Joanne needs can be done.
Professor Kelly said: "It can pick up things and retrieve things. It can operate under a control via Joanne's iPad, for example, or voice control even via the iPad.
"The kind of thing we'd be looking to include would then be to make it lighter, make the batteries last longer and make the interaction easier."
