Priya Patel
TLDR: Experts from the University of Glasgow are developing an AI-powered robot guide dog called RoboGuide to help blind and visually impaired people navigate indoor environments such as museums, hospitals, and shopping centers. The robot uses sensors to map and assess its surroundings and can learn optimal routes and avoid obstacles in real-time. The development of the RoboGuide aims to provide blind and visually impaired individuals with more independence in their daily lives, as current technologies often have limitations in indoor settings. The University of Glasgow plans to have a complete version of the robot available in the near future.
Blind and partially sighted individuals may soon have a new way to navigate indoor spaces, thanks to the development of an AI-powered robot guide dog by experts at the University of Glasgow. The robot, called RoboGuide, uses a system of sensors to accurately map and assess its surroundings, allowing it to navigate through indoor environments such as museums, hospitals, and shopping centers. The robot is also capable of learning optimal routes between locations and interpreting real-time sensor data to avoid obstacles while guiding a human. Additionally, the RoboGuide can understand speech and provide verbal responses, further enhancing its functionality as a guide for the visually impaired.
According to Olaoluwa Popoola, the principal investigator of the RoboGuide project at the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering, assistive technologies like the RoboGuide have the potential to provide blind and visually impaired individuals with more independence in their daily lives. He notes that current technologies, such as robots that use GPS to navigate or cameras to “see,” often have limitations in indoor settings. GPS-guided robots may perform well outdoors, but struggle indoors where signal coverage weakens, while camera-based robots are limited by line of sight, making it harder for them to safely guide people around objects or corners.
The ongoing development of the RoboGuide showcases a number of cutting-edge technologies. The prototype was recently showcased at the University of Glasgow’s Mazumdar-Shaw Advanced Research Centre, and the team behind the project aims to have a complete version of the robot available in the coming years.
There are an estimated 2.2 billion people worldwide living with some form of vision loss, and approximately two million people in the UK are affected. The development of the RoboGuide aims to provide blind and visually impaired individuals with more independence and the ability to navigate public spaces more freely. The Forth Valley Sensory Centre Trust and the Royal National Institute of Blind People Scotland have lent their support to the development of the RoboGuide, and the robot was trialed with volunteers from both organizations at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow in December.
Developers hope that the RoboGuide will serve as a robust commercial product that can be adapted for use with various types and sizes of robots, offering assistance to blind and visually impaired individuals in a wide range of indoor situations.
