Cellulo is a Little Robot Guide for Children with Vision Disabilities

This week Alexandre Foucqueteau from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, a research institute/university in Lausanne, Switzerland, announced Cellulo, a robot designed to assist children with vision disabilities navigate their way in the classroom. Developed in collaboration with the Computer-Human Interaction Lab for Learning & Instruction (CHILI), and the Robotic Systems Laboratory (LSRO), Cellulo uses a durable magnetic mechanism so when it bumps into obstacles, it studies the spatial layout of the classroom and relays that information to a tablet that the child can use to orient themselves.

Speaking of his inspiration for Cellulo, Mr. Foucqueteau wrote, “I spent five months observing classes of children with vision disabilities aged between three and nine years old. The classes were very mixed, and the learning tools available did not really meet their needs.”

Cellulo is one of many new devices geared towards assisting children to participate more fully in their education. Source: Global Accessibility News.