While commendable progress has been made in user-centric research on mobile assistive systems for blind and low-vision (BLV) individuals, references that directly inform robot navigation design remain rare. To bridge this gap, we conducted a comprehensive human study involving interviews with 26 guide dog handlers, four white cane users, nine guide dog trainers, and one O\&M trainer, along with 15+ hours of observing guide dog-assisted walking. After de-identification, we open-sourced the dataset to promote human-centered development and informed decision-making for assistive systems for BLV people. Building on insights from this formative study, we developed GuideNav, a vision-only, teach-and-repeat navigation system. Inspired by how guide dogs are trained and assist their handlers, GuideNav autonomously repeats a path demonstrated by a sighted person using a robot. Specifically, the system constructs a topological representation of the taught route, integrates visual place recognition with temporal filtering, and employs a relative pose estimator to compute navigation actions - all without relying on costly, heavy, power-hungry sensors such as LiDAR. In field tests, GuideNav consistently achieved kilometer-scale route following across five outdoor environments, maintaining reliability despite noticeable scene variations between teach and repeat runs. A user study with 3 guide dog handlers and 1 guide dog trainer further confirmed the system's feasibility, marking (to our knowledge) the first demonstration of a quadruped mobile system retrieving a path in a manner comparable to guide dogs.

The perfect robot guide dog shouldn't be cute Approachable, packed full of navigational features, soft to the touch--and won't cause a scene. Researchers are in the process of tailoring a robot dog prototype based on feedback and preferences from people with blindness or partial sightedness. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Guide dogs that assist people with blindness or partial sightedness are a powerful reminder of the bond humans have formed with our four-legged companions. Properly trained working dogs serve as a second set of eyes and as a constant, high-stakes assistant, offering an unmatched ability to help their handlers avoid danger and navigate a busy world with confidence.

Robots are increasingly integrated across industries, particularly in healthcare. However, many valuable applications for quadrupedal robots remain overlooked. This research explores the effectiveness of three reinforcement learning algorithms in training a simulated quadruped robot for autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance. The goal is to develop a robotic guide dog simulation capable of path following and obstacle avoidance, with long-term potential for real-world assistance to guide dogs and visually impaired individuals. It also seeks to expand research into medical 'pets', including robotic guide and alert dogs. A comparative analysis of thirteen related research papers shaped key evaluation criteria, including collision detection, pathfinding algorithms, sensor usage, robot type, and simulation platforms. The study focuses on sensor inputs, collision frequency, reward signals, and learning progression to determine which algorithm best supports robotic navigation in complex environments. Custom-made environments were used to ensure fair evaluation of all three algorithms under controlled conditions, allowing consistent data collection. Results show that Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) outperformed Deep Q-Network (DQN) and Q-learning across all metrics, particularly in average and median steps to goal per episode. By analysing these results, this study contributes to robotic navigation, AI and medical robotics, offering insights into the feasibility of AI-driven quadruped mobility and its role in assistive robotics.

A quadruped robot is a promising system that can offer assistance comparable to that of dog guides due to its similar form factor. However, various challenges remain in making these robots a reliable option for blind and low-vision (BLV) individuals. Among these challenges, noise and jerky motion during walking are critical drawbacks of existing quadruped robots. While these issues have largely been overlooked in guide dog robot research, our interviews with guide dog handlers and trainers revealed that acoustic and physical disturbances can be particularly disruptive for BLV individuals, who rely heavily on environmental sounds for navigation. To address these issues, we developed a novel walking controller for slow stepping and smooth foot swing/contact while maintaining human walking speed, as well as robust and stable balance control. The controller integrates with a perception system to facilitate locomotion over non-flat terrains, such as stairs. Our controller was extensively tested on the Unitree Go1 robot and, when compared with other control methods, demonstrated significant noise reduction -- half of the default locomotion controller. In this study, we adopt a mixed-methods approach to evaluate its usability with BLV individuals. In our indoor walking experiments, participants compared our controller to the robot's default controller. Results demonstrated superior acceptance of our controller, highlighting its potential to improve the user experience of guide dog robots. Video demonstration (best viewed with audio) available at: https://youtu.be/8-pz_8Hqe6s.

Few jobs look more ripe for robotization than those of the guide dogs used by blind and sight-impaired people. While the canny canines are great at helping their human owners navigate safely around people and obstacles in streets, buildings, and cities, the animals themselves are in extremely short supply, so few of those who need a guide dog actually get to own one. If their guidance task can be affordably and reliably automated, however, a clutch of robotics research labs around the world say many more people could get the help they need to lead more independent lives. There are several reasons for the dearth of guide dogs. First, each costs more than 50,000 to breed, raise, and train, according to the Guide Dog Foundation, a Smithtown, NY-based charity.

DotLumen founder Cornel Amariei describes his product as a "self driving" system to enable blind and low-vision people a way to get around. It's essentially the electronic equivalent to a guide dog, helping users avoid obstacles when walking around. The Romanian company turned up to CES 2025 in Las Vegas armed with prototypes of its headset that it hopes will make blind people's lives a lot easier. The headset looks like a chunky piece of VR gear, with a front unit sitting on your forehead just above your eyes. There's a chunky power and processing pack on the rear that keeps the bulky device's weight balanced while walking around.

Robotic guide dogs hold significant potential to enhance the autonomy and mobility of blind or visually impaired (BVI) individuals by offering universal assistance over unstructured terrains at affordable costs. However, the design of robotic guide dogs remains underexplored, particularly in systematic aspects such as gait controllers, navigation behaviors, interaction methods, and verbal explanations. Our study addresses this gap by conducting user studies with 18 BVI participants, comprising 15 cane users and three guide dog users. Participants interacted with a quadrupedal robot and provided both quantitative and qualitative feedback. Our study revealed several design implications, such as a preference for a learning-based controller and a rigid handle, gradual turns with asymmetric speeds, semantic communication methods, and explainability. The study also highlighted the importance of customization to support users with diverse backgrounds and preferences, along with practical concerns such as battery life, maintenance, and weather issues. These findings offer valuable insights and design implications for future research and development of robotic guide dogs.

While guide dogs offer essential mobility assistance, their high cost, limited availability, and care requirements make them inaccessible to most blind or low vision (BLV) individuals. Recent advances in quadruped robots provide a scalable solution for mobility assistance, but many current designs fail to meet real-world needs due to a lack of understanding of handler and guide dog interactions. In this paper, we share lessons learned from developing a human-centered guide dog robot, addressing challenges such as optimal hardware design, robust navigation, and informative scene description for user adoption. By conducting semi-structured interviews and human experiments with BLV individuals, guide-dog handlers, and trainers, we identified key design principles to improve safety, trust, and usability in robotic mobility aids. Our findings lay the building blocks for future development of guide dog robots, ultimately enhancing independence and quality of life for BLV individuals.

While there is no replacement for the learned expertise, devotion, and social benefits of a guide dog, there are cases in which a robot navigation assistant could be helpful for individuals with blindness or low vision (BLV). This study investigated the potential for an industrial agile robot to perform guided navigation tasks. We developed two interface prototypes that allowed for spatial information between a human-robot pair: a voice-based app and a flexible, responsive handle. The participants (n=21) completed simple navigation tasks and a post-study survey about the prototype functionality and their trust in the robot. All participants successfully completed the navigation tasks and demonstrated the interface prototypes were able to pass spatial information between the human and the robot. Future work will include expanding the voice-based app to allow the robot to communicate obstacles to the handler and adding haptic signals to the handle design.

Dog guides are favored by blind and low-vision (BLV) individuals for their ability to enhance independence and confidence by reducing safety concerns and increasing navigation efficiency compared to traditional mobility aids. However, only a relatively small proportion of BLV individuals work with dog guides due to their limited availability and associated maintenance responsibilities. There is considerable recent interest in addressing this challenge by developing legged guide dog robots. This study was designed to determine critical aspects of the handler-guide dog interaction and better understand handler needs to inform guide dog robot development. We conducted semi-structured interviews and observation sessions with 23 dog guide handlers and 5 trainers. Thematic analysis revealed critical limitations in guide dog work, desired personalization in handler-guide dog interaction, and important perspectives on future guide dog robots. Grounded on these findings, we discuss pivotal design insights for guide dog robots aimed for adoption within the BLV community.