THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GUIDE DOG ROBOT

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We have developed two kinds of guide dog robots, vision-based guide dog robot and sonar-based one. The both robots consist of a motor wheelchair, a dead reckoning system, a sensor system (vision or sonar) and navigation system and move along the passage in the campus or corridor avoiding obstacles.1) A differential GPS system is equipped on the vision-based guide dog robot HARUNOBU-6 to get the absolute location from satelite. We found that The differential GPS was useful in the open place.2) We did a demonstration in the 8th International Symposium of Robotic Research (ISRR) at HAYAMA on 3-7 October 1997 and showed the periomance of vision-based guide dog robot.3) A psychologist estimated the sonar-based guide dog robot after two days of masking his eye, and found that the robot was useful to guide the visually impaired.4) We have developed a pedestrian recognition system in which the rhythm of walking was detected by analyzing the intensity change of the feet part of the moving object. The rhythm of walking is independent of clothes, distance and weather.5) A half of traffic accidents happen in or near the interchange. We have developed a danger estimation system at the intersection. The system detects a vehicle by the shadow underneath the vehicle, predicts its feature path based on the traffic regulation, and make the decision of safe, warning and dangerous.