[Njtechdiv] guide dogs and service robots
Tracy Carcione
carcione at access.net
Tue Jan 1 18:18:59 UTC 2019
Nice to know someone is thinking of us, but I'm not surprised at the
results. My guide regularly encounters all kinds of moving objects, and
deals with them without batting an eye. Robot movements might even be more
predictable than human movements, like, say, your typical cell phone zombie
wandering along.
What worries me more are the new electric scooters. I don't need one of
those flying along the sidewalk, with no regard for other sidewalk users.
Of course, they're not supposed to be on the sidewalk, but then neither are
bicycles, and yet there they are.
Tracy
-----Original Message-----
From: Njtechdiv [mailto:njtechdiv-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mario
Brusco via Njtechdiv
Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2019 10:55 AM
To: njtechdiv at nfbnet.org
Cc: Mario Brusco
Subject: [Njtechdiv] guide dogs and service robots
How will guide dogs react to service robots?
https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-will-guide-dogs-react-to-service-robots/#f
tag=RSSbaffb68
By Greg Nichols
December 31, 2018 -- 11:53 GMT (03:53 PST) | Topic:
We once had a dog that went berserk every time a drone was in hearing
distance. At first it wasn't such a big problem. Drones were rare and it
was easy enough to extricate fido from the situation. Fast forward a
couple years and the ubiquity of drones became a real issue as we took
our furry dude on walks, to the beach, or hiking.
That's just one example of the unintended and largely unforeseen
inconveniences brought about by wide public adoption of new
technologies. As autonomous mobile service robots march, roll, and fly
into public view, we're bound to see lots of growing pangs like that.
And for reasons I have newfound insight into, one group that's
understandably concerned is the guide dog community.
At least according to the preliminary results of a study conducted by
the nonprofit Guide Dogs and Starship Technologies, an autonomous mobile
delivery service provider, those who rely on service dogs can breathe easy.
For the study, working guide dogs and their owners met Starship's
delivery robots in real life scenarios. During the simulation, the
robots approached the dogs from the front and rear, overtook the dogs
from behind, and were overtaken by the dogs and their owners. The dogs
also met the robots head on while crossing a road.
In a sign my sample size may not have been large enough to draw broad
conclusions about dogs and unmanned vehicles, all of the dogs in the
study reacted calmly. The results are not altogether unexpected.
According to Starship's internal data, the company's robots have
interacted with over 600,000 non-working dogs in the course of
deliveries and field tests, with similar reactions.
"We believe that autonomous delivery can play an important role in
supporting all individuals within communities by making people's lives
more convenient, including the visually impaired," says Lex Bayer, CEO
of Starship. "Working seamlessly alongside residents is a top priority
for us, and we are continually looking at ways to enhance our services
by engaging with organisations such as Guide Dogs to do just this".
The pace of robotics development has been blistering, in some cases
outpacing compliance and regulatory efforts.
There's speculation in the industry that rapid adoption of autonomous
mobile robots is creating some dangerous situations that will only come
to light through unfortunate and preventable accidents.
So it's nice to see Starship taking a lead in testing how its technology
will impact one oft-overlooked community. The company plans to continue
testing the impact of robots on people with a wide range of visual
impairments.
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