- Burleson deployed robots to scan its sidewalks
- They detect damage, obstacles and other problems that could make it more difficult for people with disabilities to use the sidewalk.
- They can travel 6 miles in the time a human could travel 2 miles
Obstacles in your path and damaged sidewalks are frustrations for most pedestrians, but for people with accessibility needs, they can make routes completely inaccessible. This is why a city is using robots to improve its streets.
Burleson, a city in the US state of Texas, is the first in the state to deploy Daxbots, also known as ADA-compliant city service robots. These Wall-E-like machines roam sidewalks and are equipped with scanners and sensors to measure the width and slope of sidewalks, as well as detect potential obstacles that could pose obstacles for people with disabilities (via CBS).
The robots travel about six or seven miles per day – a human would typically only travel three miles during that time – allowing the city to quickly collect a large amount of data. With this information, officials will know where repairs and improvements are most needed, so they can make their city’s streets as accessible as possible – and simply better for all local residents.
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The robot revolution is back!
Forget delivery robots driving across town with a burger in their trunk, these kinds of helpful helpers are the kind of helpers I’d like to see roaming my local streets. Not just on the sidewalks, I would like to see them roaming the roads looking for potholes – near my house they are like hydra heads, one is filled and three more take its place.
They are also just adorable. Beyond the similarities to Wall-E, I like how the robots apparently know to stop briefly when people approach so they can take a selfie with them.
What also contributes to the appeal is that the robots offer genuine help to the entire community. Local infrastructure is boring but essential to our daily lives, but knowing where to best use resources can be impossible due to laborious data collection which can take some time – and which local authorities may not have time for.
These Daxbots tackle the problem head on and appear to provide a solid model for how other service robots could help improve our daily lives – rather than just chasing flashy, eye-catching improvements that aren’t very useful in the grand scheme of things.
We’ll have to see if the Daxbot program was successful once the full analysis is complete, but for a change, I actually hope we see more robots on our streets.
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