Georgia Tech’s robot dog could replace service dogs

Georgia Tech professor Charlie Kemp was never much of a dog person until his wife brought home an energetic goldendoodle named Daisy about a year and a half ago.

Since then, the robotics researcher’s work has literally gone to the dogs.

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Courtesey Georgia Tech

The Georgia Tech team studied how service dogs were trained to learn dozens of commands and actions, such as using a pull to open a door. That knowledge has been adapted to El-E.

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Courtesey Georgia Tech

Meet El-E, which can open drawers and bring objects just like a trained service dog. The robot, which gets its power from a motorcycle battery and is computer-controlled, may help the disabled.

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Inside Kemp’s Healthcare Robotics Lab at Georgia Tech, he and co-workers are developing a robot dog they say could someday perform the same functions as the service dogs that are vital to many physically disabled people.

At a skinny 5 feet 7 inches, with wheels instead of paws, their robodog named El-E (pronounced “Ellie”) doesn’t look anything like a real dog.

But El-E can open doors and cabinets, fetch dropped objects and do other service dog functions — all without ever needing to eat or relieve itself.

Ultimately, Kemp and co-researchers plan to train El-E to do things not even highly skilled service dogs can do, such as dial a cellphone for help or relay information to a doctor about its companion’s condition.

“A lot of people have looked at robot dogs for entertainment and companionship,” Kemp said. “But we said, ‘Hey, what about looking at this in terms of physical assistance?’ “

After Daisy the goldendoodle gave Kemp some initial inspiration, he and colleagues began working with Georgia Canines for Independence, a service dog group in Acworth.

They studied the manual of 71 commands service dogs must learn and watched how real dogs moved and worked and how they were trained.

“It gave us an example of a system that worked,” Kemp said.

A year or so later, El-E knows about 10 standard service dog commands, including “bring it here” and “give” (many others, like “sit” or “lie down,” just aren’t applicable to a robot). Its success rate at obeying some commands is 90 percent to 100 percent. That’s better than some service dogs can do, especially if they’re distracted or feeling playful or tired.

Powered by a motorcycle battery and controlled with an Apple Mac Mini computer, El-E can also repeat spoken commands, follow a laser pointer around a room and “see” and “feel” objects using built-in cameras and sensors. Its taller-than-a-dog height lets it reach high shelves.

El-E represents a growing field of research called biomedical robotics. At a recent conference where Kemp and his students presented a paper on their service robodog, other researchers detailed wearable “exoskeletons” that promise to someday help paraplegics move their legs again, sensors that can help return the feeling to damaged fingers and robots that can help with heart surgery.

Of course, real service dogs offer something robots can’t: warm-and-fuzzy companionship and unconditional love.

But there’s certainly a real need for the type of robot Kemp and crew are building, said Ramona Nichols, executive director of Georgia Canines for Independence.

It costs her organization about $17,000 and takes at least two years to train a service dog, Nichols said. Training starts when puppies are 6 weeks old, and by the end of two years, only about 50 percent of dogs pass.

As a result, it typically takes five years after getting on a waiting list to receive a service dog, Nichols said. Nationally, about 1,200 people apply for the 500 or so service dogs available each year, she said.

“Certainly with dogs you also get a tremendous emotional benefit, but [training and development] takes so long,” Nichols said.

“With robots, perhaps this is a way down the road that we can help people with disabilities a lot more quickly,” she said.

Robot dog owners also don’t have to pay for food, vet bills or other expenses, or take care of an animal each day. Pet ownership can be particularly tough for disabled people, Nichols said.

Of course, robots aren’t cheap, either. El-E cost tens of thousands of dollars to build, according to Kemp.

But as research continues and technology improves — and if Kemp finds companies or investors who can help commercialize the idea — the cost and the time it takes to get El-E-inspired robots to market should shrink dramatically.

“I would be really disappointed if this technology weren’t in homes in 10 years or so,” Kemp said. “My hope is that it would be much sooner than that.”