Since Boston Dynamics amazed the world with Spot, robot dogs have been part of tech shows like CES and MWC, with several companies trying to create their own models. While the original Spot has improved over the years, some competitors look like toys, such as Xiami’s CyberDog. Others powered by AI have flamethrowers and guns as if they straight out of science fiction movies. There are even robot goats.
However, while their utility as pets is subjective, they may have a big future in helping people who are blind. China is already trying to see if this could work and testing a robot guide dog.
China isn’t a guide dog country. Several nations worldwide have standardized the use of a guide dog for people who are blind. The International Guide Dog Federation offers a list of providers in the U.S. with various programs. However, it can cost up to $50,000 annually to train and care for a guide dog.
China is a different story. According to Reuters, there are only 400 guide dogs for more than 17 million people who are blind. This is a very unequal ratio due to several factors, including the relative newness of pet ownership and service animals. In addition, many workplaces, restaurants, and public spaces don't allow guide dogs.
A six-legged English Bulldog. Because of this problem, which prevents almost 100% of people who are blind in China from choosing a guide dog, a robot dog could be a fascinating option. A research team from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Jiao Tong University in Shanghai is developing this robot, which is already undergoing field tests.
The robot is about the size of an English bulldog but a little wider and has two extra legs. These six legs give the robot more stability and allow it to move more smoothly so the user doesn’t feel jolts. Gao Feng, the head of the development team, explained it like this: “When three legs are lifted, there are still three legs... like the tripod of a camera. It is the most stable shape.”
You can talk to it. As is customary with robots like these, the prototype is full of sensors to detect the environment and cameras to identify elements such as traffic signs and lights. According to the team, it also has a speech recognition system that it claims is more than 90% accurate and has a response time of less than a second.
Artificial intelligence controls the system, which, in addition to voice and signal recognition, can plan routes, transmit commands by sound, and provide real-time information about the environment. A real dog can’t do that. In addition, it also has a “control” system to adjust the dog’s speed by moving the leash, as with a real dog.
Mass production. But as mentioned earlier, the big problem in China is that people don’t have access to guide dogs because there aren’t enough of them. Not only are they expensive, but training takes two or three years before they can be assigned to someone in need, so the process is slow. That wouldn’t happen with a machine. As Gao states, “It’s a bit like cars. I can mass-produce them in the same way as cars, so it will become more affordable.”
He adds, “I think this could be a very large market because there might be tens of millions of people in the world who need guide dogs.” As we said, it’s a project that involves people who are blind that help develop outdoor tests to improve both the movement system and the voice commands (at the moment, in Chinese).
They aren’t the only ones. China isn’t the only country exploring the development of robot guide dogs. The U.S., Australia, and the UK are also experimenting with similar devices. And in Spain, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) released a robot guide dog more than a year ago. It’s called Tefi, and like the Chinese model, it has a GPS chip that's responsible for positioning, route calculation, and connecting to the mobile network and Google Maps.
Tefi also responds to voice commands and may be a little cheaper to produce because its skeleton is that of a simpler robot dog than the Chinese model. In the Spanish model, the sensors and connectivity system take all the spotlight. CSIC planned to begin field testing soon and add sensors that could detect elevated blood pressure in the user or the presence of volatile chemicals in a home.
Undoubtedly, a robot dog for people who are blind is much more interesting than one armed with a rifle.
Images | Jiao Tong University
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