How can robots help us investigate the places we have difficulty reaching?

Has Covid-19 started to change our attitude to robots and artificial intelligence? Researchers at Heriot-Watt University think so and are working on cutting-edge techniques to ensure a safer world for us all, with the robots doing more of the dirty and dangerous jobs. Professor Helen Hastie, director of the EPSRC-funded Centre for Doctoral Training in Robotics and Autonomous Systems, says: "At Heriot-Watt, we have been working on getting robots to go into hazardous places where people can't or don't want to go, such as offshore or deep underwater. "During the current crisis, a general awareness of the utility of robots has grown, and people can see where robots might be useful in cases when human interventions are now discouraged. This can be in particular'hot-zones' that need to be avoided by people, such as homes of those shielding, and hospitals." One example of Heriot-Watt's ambition is the SPRING project, where robots are designed to reduce stress and loneliness and improve ...