It’s now harder than ever for the roughly seven million Americans living with blindness or some sort of vision loss to connect with a guide dog.
But a unique, four-legged creation could be the future for the blind and visually impaired community, and it’s all in the hands of some bright students at Binghamton University, who spent a year turning robots into robotic guide dogs.
What You Need To Know
- It’s harder than ever for the roughly seven million Americans living with blindness or some sort of vision loss to connect with a guide dog
- Students at Binghamton University spent the past year creating robotic guide dogs out of robots
- The development could one day put guide dogs into the hands of more people than ever before
"I think it could help a lot. I think there's a long ways to go still. But if the technology could improve and because real guide dogs are very expensive and like a high demand, low supply,” said David DeFazio, a Ph.D student at BU.
While their research is still new, this development could one day put guide dogs into the hands of more people than ever before.
Right now, only about 2% of blind or visually impaired individuals own a guide dog. That’s due, in part, to the cost. The average price of a fully-trained dog could be more than $50,000, and it takes two to three years to learn its owner.
“Altogether, it's a very challenging problem. But my students are doing very well. So, they develop the software, they develop the simulation environment and they tried it in the real world. Altogether, I think I'm very glad that it worked out,” said Shiqui Zhang, an assistant professor in BU’s computer science department.
It’s a mission that DeFazio doesn’t take lightly. He’s helped develop a leash-tugging interface which will allow the robot to learn its owner’s movements, follow it and guide it around obstacles while walking together.
“A combination between fun and painful. It took a while to get to work. But definitely fun to work on it,” DeFazio said.
These developments are just the beginning, too. Organizations focused on helping blind and visually impaired individuals have already reached out to the university about the technology.
"We are really serving the community that we didn't have a lot of communication with before. And this work requires the software development and the control, the interaction, the intelligence, which is ... bringing a lot of challenges," said Zhang.
The students will present their findings and technology at the Conference on Robot Learning later this month.