Six-legged robotic guide dog to relieve blind people in China
In China, there is one trained guide dog for every 42,500 blind people. A robot guide dog could help out.
The six-legged robotic guide dog can also be controlled using a telescopic handlebar.
(Image: Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
A research team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University has adapted a six-legged Daystar Bot GS robot dog from Lenovo so that it can be used as a guide dog. The robot dog is intended to compensate for the small number of guide dogs available in China.
According to the Chinese Association for the Blind, there are around 17 million blind people in China. In contrast, there are only 400 active guide dogs. This means that there are around 42,500 blind people for every trained guide dog. To close this gap, a research team led by Feng Gao, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Shanghai Jio Tong University, has made the six-legged robot dog Daystar Bot GS from Lenovo fit for guiding blind people.
It is no coincidence that the team did not use a conventional four-legged robot dog: the Daystar Bot is said to be able to walk much more stably and have a high degree of maneuverability. These are good prerequisites for using it on a daily basis for escort tasks. The research team has strapped several sensors to its back so that the robot dog can reliably recognize its surroundings and move around in them. These include a depth camera and radar.
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The manipulated Daystar Bot can thus create 3D maps of its surroundings and virtually position itself within them. The robot uses the maps to navigate autonomously through busy streets and on paths, plan routes and dynamically avoid obstacles. It can also recognize signals at traffic lights.
Instructions via voice and tactile steering rod
The blind person gives instructions to the robot dog via voice commands and a tactile, telescopic force-feedback handlebar. The steering rod, which replaces the handle on real guide dogs, can be used to instruct the robot to move slower or faster by moving it in and out, as can be seen in a video from the Chinese state television station CGTN. Maximum speeds of up to 3 m/s are possible. In operation, however, the speed is generally between 0.6 m/s and 0.8 m/s, according to the scientists. The robot guide dog also has an internet connection so that it can make an emergency call in an emergency, for example.
The researchers are currently testing the guide dog replacement in the field. At the same time, it is being marketed by Suochen Robot Co. However, it is not yet clear when the robot guide dog will go into production. The price is also still unclear.
(olb)
