Computer Science Professor Vladimir Kulyukin's newest companion is a rather discreet character. She stands a mere three feet off the ground, loves to walk indoors, and while good at taking directions, she's even better at giving them. The only thing RG lacks is a personality.

Meet the Robot Guide, an intriguing combination of PVC pipe, batteries and a Dell laptop mounted on a mobile base. If R2-D2 had a skeletal frame, RG would be it - minus the cute banter.

Form isn't what Kulyukin is gunning for. He's after function - specifically, a device to help the country's 11 million visually impaired. Let's say you fly into Salt Lake City International Airport with your guide dog. You've never been there before, and you're looking for a restaurant, or perhaps a connecting flight gate. You're picked up by a robot guide and led to those locations. Then the robot says, "Goodbye," and you're on your own.

Where a personal guide dog might meander around, clueless for lack of directions, Kulyukin's contraption, with a pre-programmed map of the environment and a laser sensor to keep it from bumping into obstacles, would lead with the confidence of a drill sergeant.

The concept shows potential. In fact, it's so promising that the National Science Foundation is pumping a whopping $500,000 into Kulyukin's work over the next five years. That puts him at the leading edge of assistive technology for disabled persons.

It's a challenging position to be in. Both financially and technologically, progress in his field is often as slow as RG's leisurely gait through the narrow halls of its test base at Utah State's Center for Persons with Disabilities. And unlike the relative ease with which the robot strolls along from one wall-mounted navigation marker to the next, project milestones are harder to reach.

The biggest hurdle is funding. "About 90 percent of the research that's happening in computer science and electrical engineering is funded by military agencies. There just isn't enough for nonmilitary research," Kulyukin says. (more)