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)
RoboShiko! Sumo Exercises Still Good For Robots
'... the expressionless face before me was therefore that of the golem-wrestler, Rolem, a creature that could be set for five times the strength of a human being.' - Roger Zelazny, 1966.
Giant Robotic Hands At Gundam Next Future Science
'Waldo put his arms into the primary pair before him; all three pairs, including the secondary pair mounted before the machine, came to life.' - Robert Heinlein, 1942.
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RoboShiko! Sumo Exercises Still Good For Robots
'... the expressionless face before me was therefore that of the golem-wrestler, Rolem, a creature that could be set for five times the strength of a human being.'