Robot Mimics a Canine Helper

A robot inspired by helper dogs could assist the disabled and the elderly.

Service dogs that open doors, switch on lights, and perform other useful tasks offer a much needed lifeline to people with disabilities. Now researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are developing robots that mimic the relationship between humans and their canine helpers.

Robot assist: Georgia Tech’s El-E opens a door by pulling a towel attached to the handle, the same way that a service dog would. El-E also follows verbal commands and can open drawers to retrieve items. It could assist those with disabilities or the elderly. Credit: Hai Nguyen

Multimedia   Click here to see the new El-E follow commands and use the same tactics as a service dog.

Robotics researchers have long sought to create robots that can help out around the home. But while robots are good at carrying out preprogrammed tasks and following a clear trajectory, navigating a complex home environment and interacting with real people remains a formidable challenge.

Charles Kemp, a professor at Georgia Tech, believes that animal helpers may offer the ideal model for robotic assistants. He began by studying the way that helper monkeys--capuchins trained to perform useful tasks for disabled people--fetch an object or operate a device when it is highlighted with a laser pointer. "That got us excited about what we can learn from state-of-the-art biological systems," says Kemp. It also inspired him and his colleagues to develop El-E, a robot that they trained to respond to commands given via a laser pen earlier this year.

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More recently, Kemp and his student Hai Nguyen realized the potential of canine helpers after seeing a demonstration given by a charity called Georgia Canines for Independence. These dogs are trained to open doors, drawers, and cupboards and to fetch objects or operate lights when given a command. "We were amazed at what the dog could do [and] found out there's a list of commands service dogs obey," Kemp says. "That seemed like a great model to go by. If we could make a robot that obeys all those commands, we knew that we would have something valuable."

The latest version of El-E has been upgraded so that, in addition to responding to a laser pointer, it understands voice commands and can perform a wider range of tasks. The robot can be commanded the same way as a service dog--to grab hold of a towel attached to a door, drawer, or cupboard when given the right vocal command. As with service dogs, towels help the robot with both perception and physical interaction. "[El-E] doesn't know anything about the specific drawer or doors: it's able to generalize with these commands," says Kemp. "A towel is actually easy to grasp because you can be at many locations on it and still get a good grip."