he El-E robot looks like something you'd see in a Hollywood sci-fi flick: It's got two lenses spaced together just like eyes and a slender 5 1/2-foot-tall body. It spurts out wacky catch phrases when it accomplishes its goals.
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"The entire world becomes a point and click interface. Objects become buttons. And if you point at one, the robot comes to grab it," said Charlie Kemp, the director of Georgia Tech's Center for Healthcare Robotics and the robot's designer. "It creates a clickable world."
The robot, which was unveiled Wednesday at an Amsterdam conference, will be tested this summer in a real-world setting involving patients with a degenerative disease. Its creators — from Georgia Tech and Emory universities — won't disclose the robot's cost, but there's hope it could be cheaper than service animals such as dogs or monkeys.
To command the El-E, the user points a laser at something for a few seconds. The robot responds with a beep and then zeros in on the target. Once there, it lifts a mechanical arm and grabs the object. It begins the return trip when the laser is pointed at the user's feet, and it looks for a human face before handing over what it grabbed.
Kemp said engineers are often too focused on making robots behave like people, ignoring other ways they can interact.
"How can you make robots that are actually useful? That was bugging me," he said. "And it's a hard question to answer — that's why I'm happy with this. We made technical contributions as well as something that actually helps users."
