There is a good deal of activity these days in the field of robotics. Much is dedicated to use by commerce but some of the effort is also being aimed at production of robots that can be utilized by people with disabilities, but what does the person with a disability want done? Communicating with a robot and instructing it has been a problem. At present, verbal commands are not easy for robots to interpret

“A team of researchers led by Charlie Kemp, director of the Center for Healthcare Robotics in the Health Systems Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, have found a way to instruct a robot to find and deliver an item it may have never seen before using a more direct manner of communication – a laser pointer.

El-E (pronounced like the name Ellie), a robot designed to help users with limited mobility with everyday tasks, autonomously moves to an item selected with a green laser pointer, picks up the item and then delivers it to the user, another person or a selected location such as a table. El-E, named for her ability to elevate her arm and for the arm’s resemblance to an elephant trunk, can grasp and deliver several types of household items including towels, pill bottles and telephones from floors or tables.”

El-E is a purpose dedicated robot. Just like old rover it will fetch and bring on command and it is being designed specifically for people with disabilities.

“To ensure that El-E will someday be ready to roll out of the lab and into the homes of patients who need assistance, the Georgia Tech and Emory research team includes Prof. Julie Jacko, an expert on human-computer interaction and assistive technologies, and Dr. Jonathan Glass, director of the Emory ALS Center at the Emory University School of Medicine. El-E’s creators are gathering input from ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) patients and doctors to prepare El-E to assist patients with severe mobility challenges.”

The Georgia Tech and Emory research team is now working to help El-E expand its capabilities to include switching lights on and off when the user selects a light switch and opening and closing doors when the user selects a door knob.

Go fetch it Rover! Hmmm, no, I meant go gettum Georgia Tech!

More information on the El-E robot.
Visit the Georgia Tech website.