Doc in a Box

March 5, 2009

Nobody wants to have surgery on a battlefield; the idea of having it performed by a robot spider probably doesn’t make it sound any less harrowing. But as far as Peter Berkelman is concerned, a robot is better than nothing. A roboticist at the University of Hawaii, Berkelman studies haptics, the science of simulating touch and feel. “Force feedback is just fascinating to me,” Berkelman says, teeing up a pun. “I like to work on technologies that offer resistance.” (Wired)