Joanne’s robot to be put through its paces

A prototype robot being built for a Cork teenager born without limbs will be put through its paces by its makers on Friday.

A team from Trinity College Dublin’s technology department have built a life-size robot for Joanne O’Riordan.

The robot will team up with Hamadoun Toure, secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, which provided funding for the project.

The team, which started building the robot last summer, secured funding of €50,000 from the ITU.

Last April, when Joanne addressed the UN at the ITU conference ‘Girls in Technology’, she put forward a challenge for someone to build her a robot.

The 17-year-old, from Millstreet, Co Cork, is one of only seven people in the world with the condition known as total amelia.

Joanne, who also suffers from scoliosis, uses her nose, lips, and chin to use devices like her laptop and phone

She said the robot would be mostly used to pick up objects she dropped.

The robot, affectionately called ‘Robbie’ by Joanne and expected to be voice-activated, is being built by assistant professor Kevin Kelly and a team of engineers in TCD’s school of engineering.

They have built a robot with a head, arms, torso, and a single leg that moves around on two wheels.

Prof Kelly said the robot had reached the first of several stages of its development: “It is like any technological task that you take on — there are always more advances you can achieve.”

He is confident his team will have a completed robot within two years. Prof Kelly said the robot could be further developed commercially to help paraplegics and quadriplegics worldwide.

Meanwhile, a documentary about Joanne’s life, No Limbs, No Limits, is set for a nationwide cinema release on Friday, April 11.

The film premiered at the Cork Opera House last October, receiving two standing ovations, and recently screened at the Dublin International Film Festival.