By Clay Dillow Posted 08.12.2010 at 12:21 pm 5 Comments

Saitama University's Robotic Wheelchair

Japanese researchers, never at a loss for concepts mashing up domestic and medical care with the best in robotics, has developed a robotic wheelchair that automatically follows a human companion.

Born of Saitama University's Human-Robot Interaction Center, the wheelchair employs a distance sensor that tracks the position of a companion person, keeping the wheelchair always at the person's left. It also tracks the position of the companion's shoulders, anticipating where that person is moving next. Even if the companion stand in place and simply rotates, the chair will circle around to remain abreast of the companion.

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Technology, Clay Dillow, helper robots, japan, robotics, robots, saitama university, wheelchairs
Unless, that is, the corridor narrows or other foot traffic is approaching or there is an obstacle or a narrow corridor. The wheelchair makes decisions about upcoming terrain and objects, avoiding obstacles and dropping into single file if the passage ahead is too narrow or there are lots of people approaching from the opposite direction.

The 'bot is aimed at helping care workers in facilities move elderly folks around more efficiently -- more than one wheelchair can follow a single companion at the same time -- and to allow better interaction between the person in the chair and the companion. After all, it's touch to keep a conversation going when you're always walking one behind the other.

Learn more about the technology and see the wheelchair in motion in the video below.


[Crunchgear]

5 Comments

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sjcannata72
08/12/10 at 1:28 pm

Proofreading guys. First paragraph "Japanese researchers, never at a loss for concepts mashing up domestic and medical care with the best in robotics, HAS developed" bad grammar.

Then the end of the second to last paragraph "After all, it's TOUCH to keep a conversation going when you're always walking one behind the other." you mean tough? Oh popsci

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RogueSquirrel
08/12/10 at 4:25 pm

All I can think of is real life auto-follow from WoW.

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StephenD.Alverez
08/12/10 at 4:37 pm

What if two people get close and you start following some other dude? Or what if you go past a fountain or windmill, will you just get soaked?

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Mardirossian17
08/12/10 at 5:22 pm

For aditional safty feature a voice commend would be nice, since most disabled people can talk.

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phildo
08/13/10 at 9:01 am

i want to put my golf clubs in the wheel chair and have my personal caddy.



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