Secrets of Tefi, a robot dog for the blind

Tefi, the robotic dog created for the blind, didn’t come out of nowhere. For its development, it was previously necessary to reveal many secrets that walking robots hide.

In 1989, at the MITLegLaboratory, Mark H. Reibert and other authors presented a paper. Dynamically stable leg movement. This fundamental work revealed those secrets, the basics of the movement of robots with legs. The report included a series of control and dynamic equations that led to the creation of robots such as Tefi, walking four-legged robots.

From that moment until the birth of Tefi, the first robotic guide dog for the blind, four decades of achievement and knowledge passed.

With one foot to climb the stairs

It all started with the control of a one-legged jumping robot, which evolved to two and, finally, to four. Together with him, a robot dog was born.

On June 23, 2016, Boston Dynamics unveiled the Spot Mini robot, the first to sell but with a prohibitive $74,500 price tag.

This was good news, but the high price made it only available to companies and the military industry.

As of 2020, when the basic secrets of four-legged robot walking became known, research has expanded in such a way that designs have been optimized and costs have been significantly reduced.

Unitree introduced the first low-cost four-legged robots. His Go1 model sells for $2,500. Xiaomi has cut prices even further with its Cyberdog robot dog, available for less than 1,500 euros, for now only in China and for developers.

Until 2022, the trend of using these robots continued to be industrial and military, while creating fear in society and fueling the negative stigma of robotics.

Cheaper than a trained dog

Knowing the insides and mechanisms of robotic dogs, from the Institute of Physical and Information Technology (ITEFI) we are considering the possibility of their social and inclusive use.

Inspired by guide dogs for the blind and with addicted people in mind, we proposed to develop a four-legged robot with dog-like characteristics, allowing it to have greater mobility in difficult terrain, climb stairs, walk on uneven surfaces, etc.

The four-legged form of the robot makes it easy to move around the city, despite the variety of obstacles it presents.

The idea was realized considering that the cost of a trained guide dog exceeds 30,000 euros, and the one who orders one has to wait for some time until it is assigned. In addition, the dog requires constant care from the owner and its service life does not exceed 7-10 years. The price of such a robotic dog as Tefi will not exceed 5,000 euros.

birth of Tefi

Thus was born Tefi, a silver robot dog endowed with artificial intelligence, whose name refers to the institute where he was born, ITEFI.

Tefi is programmed to accompany and guide addicted and blind people. It was developed from a commercial robotic platform from which modifications were made as in Hardware how in software.

To improve its autonomy and intelligence, aspects such as cameras, microphones, gps-rtk, speakers, LIDAR, various environmental sensors, and a processor capable of supporting both the control system and artificial intelligence models working in parallel have been improved.

Tefi works with different models of artificial intelligence, including voice recognition, so that a person can interact with the robot using commands. Its owner will be able to ask him whatever he wants, without any interface, just with his voice. It also has an automatic navigation system that guides people both inside the store and in the dynamic environment of the streets.

“Tafi, take me to the office”

Tefi draws up an accurate map of the places she frequents. As soon as a house, office or an ordinary dining room has been found on his map, it is enough for a person to give him the command: “Tefi take me to the office”, and the guide dog will take his owner to the office, creating the best route and avoiding obstacles.

When abroad, you can use Google Maps to find directions to destinations that are not on your map.

Another aspect we consider vital is that Tefi can call or text friends, family, and even hospitals in an emergency. The small robot dog also performs sanitary functions: its sensors allow real-time assessment of the accumulation of carbon dioxide, ambient temperature and even the blood pressure of its owner.

It’s a car, not a shoe

Among the many artificial intelligence models integrated into Tefi, the one that allows it to recognize objects stands out. You can identify cars, tables, chairs, etc., even people. In this way, you can inform the owner of what you see, bring him closer to a chair if you are asked to do so, or to slippers.

We also wanted Tefi to collect information from the outside, such as street signs. For this reason, it has the ability to read QR codes and other derivatives that allow it to collect relevant information such as store closures, bus route changes, street closures due to construction, etc.

Tefi still has a lot of development ahead, but before taking to the streets, she is already declaring the promise of using robotics in society, and that very soon Tefi and her family will become part of our everyday life.

Herado Portilla, Doctor of Robotics, Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM)

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.

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