• Question: why is your robot called janus ??

    Asked by ciaramolloy to Enda, Jean, Kate, Kev, Tim on 9 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Enda O'Connell

      Enda O'Connell answered on 9 Nov 2012:


      @ciaramolloy

      Great question!

      Believe it or not, the robot is called Janus because it has two heads!

      In Ancient Rome they believed in a two headed god called Janus (that’s actually where we get the name of the month January).

      Our robot has two heads, each of which are used to transfer liquid (e.g. add drugs to cancer cells), but for different numbers of samples. One head can transfer between 1 and 8 samples at once, while the other can transfer 96 samples at the same time. Janus also has one arm, which can be used to pick up different things and move them around the place.

      If we can get some more money I hope to add another head which will do a whopping 384 samples at the same time. This might mean we have to change the name to Cerberus, which in Roman mythology was a three headed dog who guarded the gates of Hell…

    • Photo: Jean Bourke

      Jean Bourke answered on 15 Nov 2012:


      I don’t have a robot 🙁 If did I would call it Jonathan 😀

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