This video is about a wheelchair developed at MIT that can navigate through a building on its own.
As mentioned in the video navigation and mapping algorithms have been around for a long time but what impressed me is how the wheelchair could learn the layout of the building from a guided tour in a similar way to how a person would. This not only makes the voice commands possible but also makes it easier to deploy the robot in a new environment.
There are, of course, still limitations to this flexibility such as the need for a number of preset Wi-Fi hotspots which the wheelchair uses in conjunction with a laser range scanner for navigation. These are necessary since it’s extremely difficult for a mobile robot to keep track of its own position as it moves.
There are many other examples of robotics being used in wheelchairs. If you’re interested, do a search on YouTube and see them in action.
That is super interesting. Do you know if these chairs are still in the experimental phase of development or if they are being used today? Also, I might like to have one of these even though I may not need one. Is there an estimated or known price that these wheelchairs costs?
ReplyDeleteThe most recent information I could find about the wheelchair was from 2008 and at that point the prototypes were being tested in a nursing home. So as far as I know, it's still in the testing/development phase.
ReplyDeleteI really like how this robot actually has a purpose and will be beneficial to society. A lot of robots out there have no general purpose and sometime seem like a waste of money just to look cool.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering what the use of this is? Who needs it? I guess I wonder about the connections between something that just seems like cool technology and something that is useful for a particular population (e.g., were disabled people involved in the design of this thing?) The question about cost in particular is a good one.
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