About two months ago, Haifeng Wang, an engineering professor at SRU, purchased a robot dog that contains many features and can help with future research.
The robotic dog, named Pluto, is controlled through an app on a phone. The dog can be programed to recognize someone’s face and has sensors to detect the area around it to not run into anything.
Pluto can do various tricks such as jumping, sitting, dancing, playing, shaking paw, making gestures and more.
There is a camera built into the robot to record and take photos.
The dog can be used for various purposes, including protecting individuals from dangerous situations. It can also see and take pictures with its camera in places a person might not be able to reach.
Wang purchased the dog for his own research to help improve Pluto’s balance when it is going up a slope, in addition to teaching students the mechanics of the robot.
“I think a robot dog has a long history, so it’s pretty widely used, and my [field] is electrical engineering. The robot dog has motors in each of the legs, so it’s close to my research field,” Wang said.
Wang has already had the opportunity to bring Pluto to various events on campus.
Pluto has been used to welcome new students and try to help more students get involved and interested in the engineering program.
“It’s very useful; all the kids, all the future students were excited. It’s a very good example for kids [and] students to learn engineering in the future, get them interested in the topic,” Wang said.
Pluto is also used in Wang’s classes to help teach students.
“It actually integrates multi-discipline technologies that include mechanical engineering technology, electrical engineering technology, even computer engineering technology. I think all the features are very important to the robot and I think in the future we will have more and more robots with us. I think it’s a very good example to integrate all the skills, knowledge our engineer students will learn in the future,” Wang said.
Wang has robotic cars and a drone, but this is his first time having a robot dog. He feels Pluto is the best robot he has.
In the future Wang plans to have more robots and work with students on various types of research.
