Communications of the ACM
Computer Scientists Program Robotic Seeing-Eye Dog
The robotic dog has specific running velocity settings, limited traversability, and only considers binary tug directions.
Credit: WBNG
Binghamton University Assistant Professor Shiqi Zhang, Ph.D. student David DeFazio, and junior Eisuke Hirota have been working on a robotic seeing-eye dog to increase accessibility for visually impaired people. They've demonstrated the robot dog leading a person around a lab hallway, confidently and carefully responding to external input.
Only 2% of visually impaired or blind individuals are able to use a real seeing-eye dog for their entire life, Zhang says. Some reasons are the high cost and low availability of real guide dogs, according to the researchers' report. Seeing-eye robot dogs present a potentially significant improvement in cost, efficiency, and accessibility.
The team developed an interface that responds to leash tugs via reinforcement learning. The interface allows a user to pull the robot in a certain direction, prompting the robot to turn in response.
The team worked with a local chapter of the National Federation of the Blind to get direct and valuable feedback from members of the visually impaired community. The input will help guide the team's future research.
From Binghamton University
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