This robotic wheelchair has sensors and the necessary programming to autonomously follow a walking companion, easing the process of moving around in a wheelchair.
(Robotic wheelchair)
This wheelchair is a prototype created at Saitama University‘s Human-Robot Interaction Center. The robotic device is also able to avoid obstacles.
The capacity to autonomously follow someone around was an integral part of one of my favorite fictional devices - the autoporter from John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider:
...he nabbed an autoporter and - after consulting the illuminated fee table on its flank - credded the minimum: $35 for an hour's service...
From now until his credit expired the machine would carry his bag in its soft plastic jaws and follow him as faithfully as a well-trained hound, which indeed it resembled...
(Read more about Brunner's autoporter)
Chaffeur Robot Musashi Will Drive Your Regular Car
'What would you do,' Eric asked the robot cabdriver, 'if your wife had turned to stone, your best friend were a toad, and you had lost your job?' - Philip K. Dick, 1954
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