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Robots function as seeing-eye dogs and military friends

WASHINGTON — Artificial limbs have been helping disabled people for some time. Soon the blind may get seeing-eye robots.

Tokyo-based NSK Global has been developing a robot that functions as a seeing-eye dog for the visually impaired.

Tech Crunch.com says it’s still pretty slow. The latest model walks at a speed of 2.33 miles per hour. It can go up stairs as its human stands to its left, holding the robo-dog’s harness. Its legs flex at the knee, and in the place of paws, this dog has wheels

Check it out in this YouTube video.

Another robot called PETMAN is 6 feet tall, and is designed to be a friend to the military.

This bot crawls, runs, and does pushups like the Terminator.

And, like the android played by Arnold Schwartzenegger, PETMAN has synthetic sweat glands because it was created to test military clothing and combat hardware.

WTOP’s Evan Haning contributed to this report. Follow Evanand WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

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