Robot uses laser to 'communicate'

ATLANTA, March 24 (UPI) -- U.S. robotics scientists have taught a robot designed to assist people with mobility impairments to fetch items selected with a laser pointer.

The researchers, led by Charlie Kemp, director of the Center for Healthcare Robotics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, found a way to instruct a robot named El-E (pronounced Ellie) to find and deliver an item by using a laser pointer as a manner of communication.

"We humans naturally point at things, but we aren't very accurate, so we use the context of the situation or verbal cues to clarify which object is important," said Kemp. "Robots have some ability to retrieve specific, predefined objects, such as a soda can, but retrieving generic everyday objects has been a challenge for robots."

The laser pointer interface developed by Kemp's team overcame that challenge by providing a direct way for people to communicate the location of interest to El-E and complimentary methods that enable El-E to pick up an object without understanding what the object is or what it's called.

The research that included Professor Julie Jacko and Dr. Jonathan Glass was presented earlier this month in the Netherlands during the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.