World’s first robotic nurse assistant can lift up human in its arms

RIBA is the first robot that can lift up or set down a real human from or to a bed or wheelchair.

Nurses often suffer injuries by having to move or lift patients in bed or after an emergency.  The problem is very common and many times there no one around strong enough to lift a patient immediately after one of these occurrences.

But RIKEN-TRI Collaboration Center for Human-Interactive Robot Research(RTC) has developed a nursing-care assistant robot named RIBA (Robot for Interactive Body Assistance).

RIBA does this using its very strong human-like arms and by novel tactile guidance methods using high-accuracy tactile sensors.

RIBA was developed by integrating RIKEN’s control, sensor, and information processing and TRI’s material and structural design technologies.

Joint angle control
by touching:

Lifting up from a bed:

Transfer from a bed
to a wheelchair:

Transfer from a
wheelchair to a bed: