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Robotics

RFID-Equipped Robots Used as Guide Dogs 98

Posted by michael from the fetch! dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "A professor in computer science at the Utah State University (USU) is building robots to help people with disabilities, according to the Utah Statesman in this article. The story, which is more focused on the professor than robotics, carries several anecdotes, such as an embarrassing voice recognition system. After a blind man cleared his throat, the robot misinterpreted the sound as a sign that the man wanted to go to the bathroom. Later, every time a man cleared his throat before speaking, the robot changed directions and insisted to guide him to the restrooms. Even if the article is entertaining, this project at USU is far more ambitious. In fact, they want to design RFID-enabled robots mounted on mobile carts which will welcome blind persons at the entrance of a supermarket and guide them through the store. I bet you'll never find those carts at a Wal-Mart store, but read more for other details, references and pictures about these RFID-equipped robots designed to help blind people."
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RFID-Equipped Robots Used as Guide Dogs More

RFID-Equipped Robots Used as Guide Dogs

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  • Dogs robots (Score:5, Insightful)

    by KanSer ( 558891 ) on Saturday January 29, 2005 @10:06PM (#11517468)
    Part of the benefit of having a guide dog is that it can be a true companion to a blind person, and many times more trustworhty than a robot. A dog isn't going to crash and require a reboot, and kibble is easier to figure out than rechargeable batteries.

    That said, computers and robotics are a reflection of their creators. I guess I trust dogs a whole lot more. A dog can also provide protection against burglars. The benefits of dogs over robots goes on and on.

    • Re:Dogs robots (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Canadian_Daemon ( 642176 )
      The benefits of dogs over robots goes on and on.
      I would have to disagree, a guide dog does not know where the library is, or the computer store, or your house, whereas a robotic dog will(does?) have a map and be able to direct you to the location. This robot sounds like a great idea, a good use of technology.
    • A dog isn't going to crash and require a reboot, and kibble is easier to figure out than rechargeable batteries.

      On the other hand, a robot is never going to drag its owner across three lanes of traffic just to sniff another robot's ass.

    • Dogs are also warm and cuddly.

      With the exception of the robots in porn, there arn't many robots that can make that claim.
    • My sister is raising a puppy for a service dog (assistance dog) program. Assistance dogs are not trained to provide protection or to be aggressive in any way. Because they are leashed and harnessed, they would be at a disadvantage during an attack or threatening situation. If a such a situation occurs, the assistance dog handler is supposed to drop the leash -- if the dog was acting aggressively, the handler might not be able to tell why (e.g. if the handler is blind) or they might be without the valuable a
    • Personally I have a severe dog allergy, so developing a robot to guide me if I was to go blind isn't a bad idea.
    • Part of the benefit of having a guide dog is that it can be a true companion to a blind person, and many times more trustworhty than a robot. A dog isn't going to crash and require a reboot, and kibble is easier to figure out than rechargeable batteries.

      And most importantly: the dog won't eat their medicine for fuel.
    • At least they haven't done the obvious yet- RFID-equiped guard dogs. It wouldn't take much- an 8-barelled flamethrower on 8 motion detectors stacked on top of a mobile platform that disarms when a person has the correct RFID badge- and you'd have the perfect guard duty robot.

  • Article Text minus the spam (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 29, 2005 @10:07PM (#11517474)
    RFID-Equipped Robots Used as Guide Dogs [primidi.com]

    A professor in computer science at the Utah State University (USU) is building robots to help people with disabilities, according to the Utah Statesman in this article [utahstatesman.com]. The story, which is more focused on the professor than robotics, carries several anecdotes, such as an embarrassing voice recognition system. After a blind man cleared his throat, the robot misinterpreted the sound as a sign that the man wanted to go to the bathroom. Later, every time a man cleared his throat before speaking, the robot changed directions and insisted to guide him to the restrooms. Even if the article is entertaining, this project at USU is far more ambitious. In fact, they want to design RFID-enabled robots mounted on mobile carts which will welcome blind persons at the entrance of a supermarket and guide them through the store. I bet you'll never find those carts at a Wal-Mart store, but read more...

    First, let's look in detail at the failure of the voice recognition system.

    Vladimir Kulyukin, assistant professor in the department of computer science, works jointly as a computer science researcher and for the

    Center for Persons with Disabilities [usu.edu]. He said he had an especially embarrassing moment here at the Center for Persons with Disabilities involving a robot and a speech recognition system.

    "We figured we could speak to the robot in English, and using the voice recognition system the robot would interpret the commands and obey them. I quickly realized that just wasn't possible," he said.

    He said a blind man found the glitch in the system when he cleared his throat and the robot misunderstood the sound to mean the man wanted to go to the bathroom.

    "Every time the man cleared his throat, the robot would immediately change directions and guide him into the bathroom," he said. "It was an especially embarrassing moment in my research," he added.

    Of course, this is only a very small part of the project, which will deploy radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for use in robot-assisted indoor navigation for the visually impaired.

    "Simply speaking, we are trying to develop a robot for use as a mobile grocery cart used for the blind in supermarkets," he said. "The robot would meet the blind person at the door and, by the push of a button, would lead the person to different areas of the store."

    Kulyukin said the robot would ideally be mounted on mobile carts, but the level of funding for the technology here at USU is not sufficient for marketing the project.

    But they already built prototypes. And below are two pictures showing this RFID-equipped robotic guide (RG) for visually impaired people (Credit: Vladimir Kulyukin)

    For more information, here is a link to Vladimir Kulyukin [usu.edu] home page -- which is not always available. From there, you'll have access to various pages covering his research interests and his publications.

    You might also want to read a paper named "RFID in Robot-Assisted Indoor Navigation for the Visually Impaired," available as a PDF document [usu.edu] (6 pages, 124 KB). Here is the abstract.

    We describe how Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) can be used in robot-assisted indoor navigation for the visually impaired. We present a robotic guide for the visually impaired that was deployed and tested both with and without visually impaired participants in two indoor environments. We describe how we modified the sta

  • Read more what ? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    all i can see is a cut and pasted original article, do the editors even read the submissions ?

    i guess copyright infringment is only bad when its software right ?

  • What? (Score:4, Funny)

    by contagious_d ( 807463 ) on Saturday January 29, 2005 @10:22PM (#11517537) Journal
    I always read the last part of this guys submissions first. It scared me.

    "designed to help blind people"

  • Not at Walmart? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by bvankuik ( 203077 ) <slashdot_bvankuikNO@SPAMvankuik.nl> on Saturday January 29, 2005 @10:30PM (#11517573)
    Submitter says you would probably not see there at Walmart, but those ultra commercial companies are exactly the place I expect them. Those robots could recognize customers by their voice, fingerprint (blind people will touch them) or simply customer card. Them they can make all posts of suggestions.

    "Our store brand of coffee is cheaper, sir"
    "Last time you had cheese on your list"

    I can even come up with things lawmakers would think of, like forbidding Robby the Robot to suggest cigarettes or liquor.

    • Re:Not at Walmart? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by bluGill ( 862 ) on Saturday January 29, 2005 @10:53PM (#11517658)

      Exactly. Walmart already has carts with motors for disabled shoppers. They also have a "greeter" by the door who can easily recognize blind people entering the store and direct them to this special cart.

      This is the sort of thing companies like Walmart love. It costs very little, and looks very good even to those who will never need it.

      • Re:Not at Walmart? (Score:4, Informative)

        by Khith ( 608295 ) on Saturday January 29, 2005 @11:08PM (#11517695)
        I actually work as one of those greeters (which isn't as easy as it sounds, most of the time), so I know the carts you speak of and the people who use them.

        I've not once had a blind person driving one of those things. They're just motorized carts. They don't know where you want to go.

        Hell, I don't trust some of the sighted people with driving those things! They'll forget how to stop (let go of the controls, it's not hard!) and end up hitting the wall, the door, merchandise, or you.

        The blind people who DO enter are almost always accompanied by a friend who helps them through the store. (even when they have a service dog)
        • I think grandparent was referring to how a greeter could easily recognize a blind person and point them towards the robotic carts, which they would have in addition to the driving carts they have now.
          • Perhaps, but it's far more amusing to imagine blind people on unguided motorized carts..
            • How about hacked guided motorized carts..

              carts hold a 10-lap speed competition around the supermarket (with high-scores, of course)

              or

              carts start to push other people

              or

              carts drive blind person out of the store, right to a competitor a couple of miles down the road.
  • The robots took out insurance policies on the blind men, and they're using every excuse they can to lead them to the bathroom where they can "accidentally fall" and be left unconcious in a running sink.

    It's like the I-Robot movie, only worse! Well... it's like the moive, at least.

  • Why the obsession with RFID? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Could anyone explain it to me why on Earth would such a robot - an otherwise great idea - be anny better with RFID than without it?
    • Could anyone explain it to me why on Earth would such a robot - an otherwise great idea - be anny better with RFID than without it

      The guidance system needs to be simple, reliable, and cheap. You don't need a camera or optical reader of any sort. Paint bar codes or guide tracks on a floor and they will inevitably be muddied and erased. Fire-resistant RFID tags could be very useful in guiding the disabled through emergency escape routes and procedures.

      It should be possible to train animal aides to use simp

  • Keep this in mind if you're a blind person (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    A dog may become infested with bugs, but not with security bugs.
  • ...this. [slashdot.org]

    So yes, we'll be seeing Terminator deja vu in a few years.

  • RFID (Score:2, Insightful)

    by bih ( 674728 )
    "The experiments illustrate that passive RFID tags deployed in the environment can act as reliable stimuli that trigger local navigation behaviors to achieve global navigation objectives." That is, you'll have to imbed an RFID tag into everything you want the robot to be able to see. This is a way around the very hard problem of a generalized object recognition system for the robot. It's a fine solution, if you're blind and you don't mind not leaving your home. Otherwise it sucks.
  • the robot misinterpreted the sound as a sign that the man wanted to go to the bathroom. Later, every time a man cleared his throat before speaking, the robot changed directions and insisted to guide him to the restrooms.

    And when he unzipped his pants, well, you know the rest...

  • What on Earth makes you think you wouldn't see this at Wal-Mart? If they can mass-produce something for pennies (or nearly that, compared to others) that will help them gain even more market share by being the most visually-impared-friendly store on the planet, you can bet they will. It's not like they don't already been having fun [slashdot.org] with using RFID tags. Case in point: Wal-Mart's top 100 suppliers [line56.com] have been told to have their products chipped by the first of this year. In other words, it's likely alread
  • Is RFID needed in EVERYTHING? RFID this, RFID that... Next thing we know, an RFID tagged dildo will go on /. and they'll be describing how it works.

    • If the items have RFID tags the robot can easily find the right item, or part of the store. It is much easier for it to read the tags then try to use optical recognition, or keep a flawless map of where everything is up to date.



      This is a sensible use of the technology, don't knock it just becuase there have been some silly ones.

  • RFID tech seems to have a good deal of buzz, or at least hype, in hardware headlines as of the last two years. I'm sure we would all like to stay ahead of the curve, and I myself have been trying just to catch up. But I've been having some trouble in finding useful and comprehensive material, at both the free space of the internet lvevl and that of my university library's. I'm wondering if anyone can share some technical information: books, links, advice on the subject, particularly on the hardware setup-wi

  • Cost-benefit analysis (Score:3, Informative)

    by westendgirl ( 680185 ) on Sunday January 30, 2005 @01:41AM (#11518353) Homepage
    I'd like to see a projected cost-benefit analysis for robots vs service dogs. My sister is raising a puppy that will eventually become a service dog for people with hearing disabilities and other challenges (but not blindness). As a puppy raiser, my sister encounters several challenges, both financial and social:

    permission from her landlord to raise a puppy for 18 months

    permission from her employer to bring the puppy to work every day

    mandatory attendance of weekly training courses

    purchases of collar, leash, haltis

    responsible for any medical costs under $500

    daily socialization, including shopping malls, grocery stores, buses, doctor's and dentist's offices, theatres, movies, restaurants, elevators and sporting events.

    (This is particularly challenging, since many store owners refuse to admit the dog, despite my sister's possession of a government-issued ID that explains the dog is a service dog. People often say, "But you're not blind!" -- they don't understand that people with hearing problems, as well as invisible disabilities, have these dogs, let alone that people need to train them first.)

    Raising a puppy is serious work, but imagine you also need to teach that puppy to ignore food, stop at crosswalks, not chase sticks, ignore animals, and otherwise suppress many instincts. This requires an enormous amount of energy.

    Those are just the requirements for the people raising dogs from 10 weeks through 18 months. For breeders and caretakers of puppies under 10 weeks, the people cannot work outside the home -- and they must take on many of the same challenges as the puppy raisers. As for dogs who finish basic training (at 18 months), many must move on to basic training with new trainers, who take on much the same role as the puppy raisers. Finally, after all of this work, the dog can be placed with a client (person with a disability) for specialized training.

    Recruiting puppy breeders, raisers, and advanced trainers is a challenge for service dog societies, which also need to subsidize food, training and other products. And clients will eventually need to feed and care for the dogs. This is not a small amount of money.

    Given all of these challenges, it would be interesting to see how a robot stacks up. If a robot cost $10,000 plus batteries, perhaps this is not actually much higher than the "value" of a dog that has been through 18+ months of training and must still be fed and cared for -- volunteer time and effects on the puppy raiser's workplace productivity should also be included in the calculation. Certainly, a robot may not provide companionship, but it may not be such a bad idea. With more time on their hands, volunteers could actually provide other programs for clients. Robots could be pre-programmed, so that the first 18-24 months of dog training could be skipped. And you don't need to buy kibble for a robot.

    • I know this sounds cheesy, but the value of the companionship offered by a dog is something you haven't taken into account (and, indeed, can't have a dollar value assigned to it). I don't pretend to know anything about it, but I would imagine that having a disability such as visiom impairment would be socially isolating to a certain degree (most differences tend to have this effect in society, even those that don't limit mobility). The therapeutic value of having a pet is not to be ignored (a dog doesn't ch

      • I don't think your comment sounds cheesy. Companionship is important. My sister has had people come up to her and say that the dog has helped them in ways that a wheelchair can't. (The dog can pick up keys, pull laundry out of a dryer, turn on lights, etc.) However, a robot could probably perform some of those duties. It could not replace the companionship of a living being.

        So it would be interesting to see a comparison of the projected cost of a robot vs. that of a $25,000 assistance dog. If the robot la

  • As this topic is closely related to my own area of CS research, I was very interested to see the various comments on this matter. The first commenter (who pointed out that guide dogs provide more than simple directional guidance) has an excellent point; however, as others have pointed out, robots can process many types of information that dogs never could, can be programmed to do things that a dog simply cannot do, and can receive information from sources other than visual and auditory stimuli (as with the
  • What does the dog need that RFID tag for? I'd understand the use of some kind of transponder system (WLAN, GPRS, UMTS...) for real data communication, either with a central (map) server, or even other robotic dogs in the surrounding, but I don't see the need for a short range identification tag.
  • This article caught my eye because I am a robotics researcher. Although I admire the intentions of the project, I think such a system design is hard to justify given other alternatives.

    Here are some thoughts:

    1) Using RFID tags for robot localization is inaccurate and probably not the best choice for fairly structured indoor environments like supermarkets. Just putting colored/patterned tiles on the floor or ceiling, or using indoor GPS would probably allow the robot to navigate better.

    2) My gut feelin

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