Seeing-Eye Bot
From: Discover - January 2000 - page 30

Guide dogs are of little use to the many elderly blind people too frail to
take care of an animal. So Gerard Lacey, a computer engineer at Trinity
College, Dublin, developed a robotic walker called the Personal Adaptive
Mobility Aid (PAM-AID). With its laser range finders and sonar, PAM-AID can
avoid walls, curbs, and other obstacles as it moves about. The user steers
the robot by pushing on the handlebars. Blind people often get disoriented
during turns, so PAM-AID has a voice synthesizer that announces when it is
going straight or changing direction. Lacey also gave the robot adjustable
automony: Trying to make a left turn where there is no doorway can prompt the
robot to either ask for direction or to assume it should tuen left at the
next available passageway. After nine trials, Lacey is encouraged by the
reactions: "People became jealous of their time using the machine. They'd
say, 'Your time is up - it's my go.'" 

http://www.cs.tcd.ie/PAMAID/