A community called “Robots for Good” has come together to help kids stuck in Great Ormond Street Hospital in London visit the zoo. If the name hasn’t given it away, the project involves robots, but perhaps not in the way you might be thinking.

The group is 3D printing a life-size humanoid robot that strolls, or more accurately rolls, around London Zoo, all under the control of a child back at the hospital. But it’s a bit more immersive than that: The robot is hooked up to an Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset, so children can treat the robot as an avatar and feel like they’re interacting with the animals themselves.

Much like the increasing trend for journals to provide open access papers, more and more technology is going open source, and it’s thanks to this movement that this venture has been possible. It was born out of two such existing projects: Gael Langevin’s 3D-printed robot called “InMoov” and Boris Landoni’s Segway-style vehicle called “OpenWheels.” As open hardware, anyone with Internet access can download the blueprints for the tech and share, modify and develop them however they so wish. And that’s exactly what Robots for Good has been doing.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be zoos that these robots frequent. London Zoo is already thinking about what they can do next with the robot, and is hoping to deploy one or several in a wildlife park they own in Africa. Moving away from animals, robots can also be put in nursing homes for the elderly.

bbabo.Net