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Photos: Robots, lasers, action
Laser-guided robot 'thinks' like a human

By Nick Heath

Published: Thursday 10 April 2008

You know the future has arrived when scientists bring together two staples of science fiction: lasers and robots.

But rather than 50-tonne behemoths dealing death with a massive light cannon, the El-E robot is instead using lasers to think like a human.

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Emory University School of Medicine believe they have found the answer to the difficulties that robots have in processing the imperfections of the real world using laser pointers.

Ordering El-E to retrieve an item is as simple as shining a laser pointer on the object you want. The pointer can also be used a second time to tell El-E to put the object in a certain place or give it to a specific person.

Above, Charlie Kemp, director of the Healthcare Robotics Center at Georgia Tech and Emory, accepts a towel from El-E.

Photo credit: Georgia Institute of Technology