el-e [pronounced ellie] is a robotic assistant, created by a team of researchers led by charlie kemp at healthcare robotics [hsi - georgia tech and emory university]. el-e is capable of picking up and delivering items selected with a laser pointer.
the robot is intended to provide assistance to people with limited mobility, has an omni-directional camera that can see most of a room at a glance, moves toward objects painted by the laser pointer, uses a laser range finder to scan across the desired object, and then uses a camera in its hand to visually distinguish the object from the background and grab the object with a special gripper.