New robotic devices

Citation

Rudall, B.H. (1998), "New robotic devices", Kybernetes, Vol. 27 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.1998.06727haa.004

New robotic devices

New robotic devices

Robot guide dog

What has been claimed to be the world's first intelligent robot guide dog has been announced at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA. If successfully completed the robot guide could change the lives of the blind and partially sighted as well as offering a multitude of other potential uses.

It would be seen as one of the most sophisticated robots with a capability of helping its handler to navigate and at the same time providing the capacity to carry things. A statistic produced in the UK indicates that some 4,600 of the registered blind and partially sighted have guide dogs. The reasons given for what appears to be such a low figure is that some people are unable to look after dogs and others may be allergic to them. In Britain there are some 316,000 registered blind or partially sighted.

The Carnegie Mellon scientist whose team is building the robot, Dr Sebastian Thrun, says that:

It will be able to help people move around in a cluttered environment without bumping into things, just like real guide dogs can and this will mean that some of those who have to live in care centres now will not have to do so. The robot dog is able to sense its surroundings using five different devices: sonar, which is similar to that used by bats and in submarines, laser range finders, infrared scanners, a camera linked to computer vision technology and simple collision detectors fitted behind the robot's metal panels that form its body.

The research team also claims that the robot can respond to simple orders by word or gesture, is able to work out the best route to take, then move around on its wheels avoiding collisions with furniture or with people who wander across its path.

What interests systemists and cyberneticians is the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in its central control computer. The AI systems allow it to construct a map of its home. In addition it is believed that its ability to accept that it can make errors means that it is less accident-prone than previous designs.

Professor Thrun also says that:

The robot can extract information from its sensors and use this to make decisions, but the key to its success is the ability to handle uncertain knowledge so it does not believe everything it sees and can accept the possibility that it could be wrong.

Much of the fieldwork for testing the device was carried out in Germany where the development team worked with scientists from Bonn University to try out a prototype in a German museum. The device had to cope with crowds of visitors to the museum and, at the same time act as a guide to the exhibits. The robot prototype will also be tested next year, in a German hospital before the "commercial version" is produced.

The Carnegie Mellon team believes that the new robot will be successful in the home and could also be used in shopping centres and offices. They hope to be able to increase its range so that it will be able to climb stairs and also be able to survive in the unpredictable world at large.

The reaction from guide dog owners and the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (GDBA) in the UK to this new US initiative has been mixed. The general feeling being that while robot technology could well be used to support the present guide dogs it was a long way from replacing them. Losing the friendship of a real dog, it was said, could not be compensated for by any technological benefits. Perhaps in the future the robot guide dog could be made to look more like the real thing so that, as with some of the current popular computer "pets", people could develop a relationship with it.

There is little doubt that the Carnegie Mellon initiative in producing such a device will contribute to the advancement of new robotic research as well as providing a most sophisticated machine with many worthwhile applications in our society.