Technology 5 April 2021 Guide dogs offer social, physical and mental benefits for some people who are blind, but training them is a costly and lengthy process, so researchers have created a robotic alternative. Zhongyu Li at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues programmed a four-legged, dog-like robot to safely guide people with a lead, even when faced with obstacles and narrow passages. The robotic guide dog Anxing Xiao et al./University of California, Berkeley The researchers equipped an existing robot with a laser-ranging system to create an accurate map of its surroundings. They also added a rotating camera that remains pointed at …