Autonomous robots, shaped like robotic dogs, may soon be roaming among the next generation of leaders and academics at the University of Texas at Austin, the University reported recently.
Unlike commercial delivery services that most robots perform, UT researchers are hoping to better understand how the machines navigate with the everyday humans who walk among them.
A new grant provided to a team of researchers at the university will support the project. A five-year study will focus on how what it takes to create, safely operate and maintain this kind of robot that also adapt to the humans that live and work around it.
The team hopes that over time, they will learn how top-of-the-line robotic autonomy can exist in a real-life community.
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“Robotic systems are becoming more ubiquitous,” UT Professor Luis Sentis told UT News. “In addition to programming robots to perform a realistic task such as delivering supplies, we will be able to gather observations to help develop standards for safety, communication and behavior to allow these future systems to be useful and safe in our community.”
Researchers are looking to gain insights from observing and interviewing pedestrians who encounter robots in a variety of situations. The research will help designers figure out how public-facing robots should be designed and how and where they should move in a community setting.
The $3.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation will expand on a previous six-year project, Living and Working with Robots, which began in September 2021.
