guide robots
from
Missouri December Chronicle
THE EDITORIAL EYE
(Guest editorial by Dr. Ronald E. Milliman)
Before you reject this idea because it is so different, open up your minds
and really think about this concept. It is a solution to many problems we
face daily.
The day is not too far off when we will be able to purchase a guide robot,
perhaps
to be called a "Guidebot." It will be very friendly andinteractive,
programmed to
be especially helpful to blind people. It will have some very valuable
attributes
that a dog or cane does not possess, e.g. the Guidebot will be able to
recognize
people and call them by name and help you such as: "Here comes Linda
Myers,"
allowing
you, then, to speak up and say: "Good morning Linda; how are you this
beautiful
morning?" Of course, our Guidebot would be able to spot vehicles, and
using
its
radar type technology, be able to accurately determine how fast the
vehicle
is moving
and in which direction, and thus, be able to calculate whether you have
sufficient
time to cross the street without risking being hit. The
Guidebot could also identify traffic lights and what color they are,
identify paper
money, etc., etc.
The technology is, essentially, available now, but it is just not all
assembled in
a package that makes it function the way I described here. Such Guidebots
could come
in a variety of configurations, e.g. like a dog, like a person, etc. So,
if
you
wanted a Guidebot that would look like a Golden Retriever, you could just
order that
particular physical configuration.
Frankly, I, personally, would strongly favor our working toward this
technological
solution rather than some of the other things we are fighting for because
it
solves
the problems from an entirely different direction. It is one solution to
many, many
different problems that we , as blind people, face everyday for which we
are
currently
seeking multiple solutions, many of which are opposed by various segments
of
our
society, business, government, and yes, even some other blind populated
organizations.
Dr. Ronald E. Milliman, Professor of Marketing, Western Kentucky
University
**Chair, ACB Public Relations Committee
**Chair, ACB Monthly Monetary Support Program (MMS) Committee
(Response from Dan Rossi):
"If you want a guide bot that looks like a dog and actually walks on four
legs, it
is going to require a lot of power. Not to mention a lot more development
on the
robotics side. Sure, four leg walkers are around, but four leg walkers
that
are
stable enough, and agile enough to guide a human will take a lot more
work."
"also, guiding a person takes a lot more intelligence than basic obstacle
avoidance.
It would require more than just computer vision, because to a computer, a
shadow
looks a whole lot like a hole. So LASER range finding or ultrasonics
would
need
to be part of the package."
"all of this stuff does exist. It is nothing terribly new. Look at the
DARPA Grand
Challenge. However, putting it all into something portable, and powering
it
is something
else."
"None of what Ron says is impossible. However, I think it would take
quite
a lot
of money to bring it all together."
I'm wondering how much it would weigh, and would that make for a problem
when it
comes to flying?
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