It's been well over a year since we last saw the
laser-guided, self-docking wheelchair developed by folks at Lehigh University, and now the team is back with an altogether more ambitious project. According to associate professor John Spletzer, the recipient of a five-year CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, the goal is to "extend the autonomy of the wheelchair so it can navigate completely in an urban setting and take you wherever you need to go." This will be done by equipping robotic chairs with laser and camera sensors (which the team developed for the 2007
DARPA Grand Challenge) as well as exhaustive, Google Street View-esque maps of the city where they will be operating. Of course, these guys will be operating in a busy urban environment, so in addition to large-scale 3D maps, they must be equipped with motion planning features for operating in dense crowds and a changing environment. It's too soon yet to say when these things might become available commercially, but if you're a resident of the Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital in Allentown, PA, you might have your chance to test one soon enough.
[Via
PhysOrg]
posted Nov 10th 2009 3:54PM
id buy that bitch 5 times over
Dang namit!
I saw NSF != NSFW
got my hopes "up"
But then you'd always be followed around by Steve Guttenberg and Fisher Stevens sporting a terrible Indian accent. On the other hand, that sounds like the coolest entourage ever.
Wouldnt you like to be a pepper too?
INNNNPUUUUUUTT.
Oh Stephanie......Right on the sensor!
Looks more like a mobile suicide machine.
Looks like R.O.B. to me ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.O.B.
Johnny5 is alive!
No shit. Where see shit?
fiiiiivve... aliiiiivvvveee
NO DISASSEMBLE!
Props to my bro for still getting blog work.
"Who's Johnny?"
she said, and smiled in her special way.
I am expecting some serious Jason -shop work for this Friday angadet!
I don't even care what the story is about... I just want a Johnny5 powered wheelchair.
I'd backhand it
NSF backs development of laser-guided robot wheelchairs... calls house of mirrors a bag of hurt.
What no pew,pew
In the great philosphy of Ben Jabituya, "I am sporting a tremendous woody."
My Dream of Autonomous MurderBall is sooo close!!!!
Ready to mark that off the list of things i must see before i die
I wish my grandma was on engadget...
Makes me which I'd be paralysed..
I think to be fair to older people, the article should also have an extremely obese person riding the wheel chair (preferably in Wal-Mart).
Was that a Joey Lawrence 'Whoa'?
HOVEROUND!
Gotta love having Pennsylvania in the spotlight. Especially when it deals with lasers,wheelchairs, and the elderly in the same excerpt. God I love this place.
So, can't they mount a Garmin or a Tom Tom to the Little Rascals?
is that the new Droid mascot.
Is she sitting on the robot's lap? Yuck, that could get nasty.
I laughed so goddamn hard at that picture..
Thats my great aunt Rosemary!!!!
NSFW tags please engadget.
NSFWoman!
Wow.. Stephanie an’t holding up well with age
hahah article pic ftw!
Johnny 5: GILF hunter
Honestly, what ISN'T made better with lasers and robots?
It's good to see someone with wheels for legs to be so happy.
Strength Is Irrelevant
We Are Borg
Resistance Is Futile
You Will Be Rehabilitated
Not Sufficient Funds is funding WC research?