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Robotic Wheelchair Autonomously Follows Walking Companion
This robotic wheelchair has sensors and the necessary programming to autonomously follow a walking companion, easing the process of moving around in a wheelchair.
(Robotic wheelchair)
This wheelchair is a prototype created at Saitama University‘s Human-Robot Interaction Center. The robotic device is also able to avoid obstacles.
The capacity to autonomously follow someone around was an integral part of one of my favorite fictional devices - the autoporter from John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider:
...he nabbed an autoporter and - after consulting the illuminated fee table on its flank - credded the minimum: $35 for an hour's service...From now until his credit expired the machine would carry his bag in its soft plastic jaws and follow him as faithfully as a well-trained hound, which indeed it resembled...
(Read more about Brunner's autoporter)
Via Neatorama.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 8/14/2010)
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