Ben Preiss
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 The El-E Robot The one-armed wonder named El-E (pronounced “Ellie”) because in operation it reminds you of an elephant’s trunk, can retrieve objects that have been pointed to with a laser pointer. Developed at the department of biomedical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, El-E’s skill can be especially helpful for people with severely restricted mobility. The EI-E was created by Charlie Kemp, an assistant professor and roboticist in the department of biomedical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “The pointer gives the robot just enough context and guidance to solve the really hard problem of figuring out which object among many lying around in a room to pick up,” another professor explained. “People in artificial intelligence have been working on this problem for a long time.”  Just pointing to an object with natural gestures usually isn’t enough to direct a robot, and even when robots navigate to the right spot, it’s hard for them to grasp a particular object unless, for instance, they have a three-dimensional computer model of it, Professor Kemp said. Guided by the laser pointer, though, El-E can fetch objects as varied as towels, wallets or coffee mugs with no need for elaborate computer modeling. The laser pointer has its limits: the object being retrieved has to be in a line of sight with it. If the object is behind a bookshelf, or in the next room, the beam won’t get there.
(nytimes)References: newsoxy, nytimes 2 Comments: on Laser Guided Robotic Assistant |
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