Guide dogs offer social, physical and mental benefits for some people who are blind, but training them is a costly and lengthy process, so researchers have created a robotic alternative.
Zhongyu Li at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues programmed a four-legged, dog-like robot to safely guide people with a lead, even when faced with obstacles and narrow passages.
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The researchers equipped an existing robot with a laser-ranging system to create an accurate map of its surroundings. They also added a rotating camera that remains pointed at the person the robot is guiding, to determine their relative position.
Once given a start point and an end point, the robot鈥檚 software generates a simple route with waypoints. It then calculates its movements on the go depending on obstacles and the behaviour of the person it is leading.
Rather than constantly pulling away, keeping the lead taut, the robot is programmed to let its lead go slack when turning in a confined space. This allows the robot to more precisely control the path that the person being guided takes.
The team tested the robot with three people on a course that included narrow sections no more than a metre across. This course would be too narrow for the robot to complete by pulling with a constantly taut lead because of the turning circle of the robot and person combined, but it completed the task successfully every time.
Li says that, unlike real guide dogs that have to be trained individually, robot guide dog training is scalable. 鈥淯sing a robotic guide dog, we can directly deploy our code from one robot to another. As time goes by and the hardware becomes more affordable, we can actually use this kind of dog to help, to serve, humans,鈥� he says.
The team hopes that the devices will eventually sync with the user鈥檚 computer or smartphone and automatically take them to appointments using GPS navigation. 鈥淥ur robot dog has a way of intelligence about navigation, from point A to point B,鈥� says Li. 鈥淎n actual dog doesn鈥檛 know about navigating. This is an advantage of our dog.鈥�
Tim Stafford at UK charity Guide Dogs says he supports the idea of robotic guides if it helps people with sight loss lead independent lives.
鈥淭hat being said, guide dog owners will frequently speak about their dog鈥檚 impact on their own life and well-being,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey value their dog as a partner, companion and family member, as well as a guide dog. It is this deep bond which makes the relationship unique and so much more than just a way to get around safely.鈥�
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