By: Roxanne Cortner
Georgia Southern University’s robotics lab developed an advanced robot to interact with people.
In the robotics lab, a robotic dog has been created to interact with people who have disabilities. The target of this project is for people with disabilities, specifically children with autism, to be able to interact with something “real” even though they may not like physical touch or interaction.
“It is difficult for them to interact with people and living things, but easy for them to interact with toys,” Dr. Rios, an associate engineering professor, said.
Dr. Fernando Rios got his Ph.D in electrical engineering and helped develop the robotic dog to apply his research in artificial intelligence. One of the principles of this research is robotics. With artificial intelligence and robotics, Rios wants to mimic the way the human brain works. Rios described this process as being more complicated than mimicking the brain of an animal and needing a bigger computer to code the information in a human brain to put into a human robot.
A lot of coding takes place to develop a robot and get it to respond to verbal and nonverbal commands.
To develop the dog robot, instructions are programmed into a series of Arduino boards. Commands and responses are coded and then put into a program. This is then connected to the robotic system. The system is then programmed with sensory mechanics to take in movements.
The robotic dog has cameras and five different sensors. These cameras make it possible for the dog to see the commander and respond appropriately. The autonomous sensors allow for the dog to function on its own. Along with autonomous sensors and Arduino boards, microcontrollers allow for the robot dog to be controlled without a remote or another person physically controlling the robot.
Essentially, the robot is acquiring it’s actions and responses through its programming, and anyone who knows the language that it was programmed with can interact with it by changing or altering its actions through its coding.
The combination of these applications allows the robotic dog to mimic the actions and emotions of a real dog. The robot dog can find a bone, move his ears, wag his tail and recognize objects.
“It’s combining mechanical engineering with electrical engineering and applying them to make something happen,” Nicholas Walsh, an engineering student, said.
Dr. Rios says we are still not at the level to mimic humans, but we are getting there. Movies show that advancements in technology are allowing for the development of robots close to human-like, but it has not fully been developed yet.
Students in the engineering department have created humanoids, or human-like robots, that are able to kick a ball and move, but due to costs, the robot was not human-like to the potential they would like it to be.
Students have also developed other non-human-like robots that use autonomous sensors that allow people to mow their lawn without being on a lawnmower. This bot has been programmed to respond to commands from an app on a phone. The controller can put the design or outline of the lawn into an app and the bot will follow the instructions.
More advanced drones are also being developed within Georgia Southern’s robotics lab. Currently, these drones are able to follow commands by a remote control, but researchers are hoping they will one day be autonomous as well. Some researchers have already begun this advancement with hand signals to a camera that the drone responds to.
Dr. Rios talked about drones and how they have become advanced enough to fly on their own or go into a burning building, find the fire and put them out. This is a more advanced version of the drones and robots that go into natural disasters with cameras to find survivors.
With more research, humanoids could become a thing of the future if researchers continue to advance drones and robot animals.