The National Institutes of Health (NIH) plans to provide $2.2 million in funding over the next five years for the development of three innovative "co-robot" projects: an affordable hand-worn device to help the visually impaired grasp objects, a smart-walker to increase mobility in the elderly and a social-robot companion for children. The hand-worn device, which can detect a small object and help the blind user maintain alignment with the object while approaching it, has a global market potential of nearly $20 billion.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced in December that it plans to provide $2.2 million in funding over the next five years to develop three co-robots (robots that interact cooperatively with people), as part of the National Robotics Initiative (NRI).
All three projects are in the early stage of research: a hand-worn device to help the visually impaired grasp objects,...