With a little help from our robots
Adam Mazurick sees robots not as competitors but as powerful tools
Imagine there鈥檚 been an earthquake, or other natural disaster. First responders arrive on the scene鈥攂ut their work is inherently dangerous. Fires may still be burning; buildings could be in danger of collapsing. 鈥淚 don't want to send a firefighter into that environment,鈥� says roboticist Adam Mazurick. 鈥淚鈥檇 much rather give the firefighter a joystick they can use to control an anthropomorphic robot, which can go in, look around, and relay back the information safely.鈥�
Anthropomorphic: Described or thought of as having a human form or human attributes.
Mazurick specializes in the design of such robots, and the interfaces needed to control them. He鈥檚 currently pursuing his PhD in TMU鈥檚 Computational Public Safety Lab, where he works with computer science professor Alex Ferworn and Jimmy Tran, a postdoctoral researcher and the lab鈥檚 Research Technology Officer. At the same time, Mazurick has one foot in the industry, as he puts it; he鈥檚 a senior researcher at Wattpad, a Toronto-based multi-platform entertainment company, and he鈥檚 consulted for Facebook, Verizon and other companies.
The way Mazurick sees it, robots aren鈥檛 here to compete with us, to take our jobs, or (heaven forbid) to take over the world Terminator-style (although, as a big fan of the movies, he keeps a replica Terminator arm on a shelf in his office). Rather, he sees robots as incredibly powerful tools, which can work with us, allowing humans to accomplish more than they could on their own. And with an aging population, the need for such tools is growing. He envisions, for example, a robotic arm that can help a senior with mobility issues reach for an item on a grocery store shelf. Full-fledged anthropomorphic helper-robots鈥攊f you鈥檙e picturing C-3PO from Star Wars, you鈥檙e not too far off, Mazurick says鈥攎ay be just over the horizon. 鈥淲hat used to be mere science fiction is now the near future,鈥� he says.