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WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 () -- The U.S. government approved $2.4 million to develop innovative robots to work co-operatively with people with disabilities and to assist doctors.One project is a co-robotic navigation aid for the visually impaired that has enhanced navigation capabilities and that can relay critical information about the environment to its user. Using computer vision, the proposed cane will be able to recognize indoor structures such as stairways and doors, as well as detect potential obstacles, said Cang Ye of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.The portable robotics would have many applications in military surveillance, law enforcement and search and rescue efforts, Ye said. Mark Griswold and Natalia Gudino of Case Western Reserve University said the second project is a magnetic resonance imaging-guided co-robotic catheter that would improve current procedures for treating atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is an irregular heartbeat that can increase the risk of stroke and heart disease. By purposefully destroying specific areas of the heart in a controlled fashion, the propagation of irregular heart activity can be prevented, the researchers said. This is generally achieved by threading a catheter with an electrode at its tip through a vein in the groin until it reaches the patient's heart. However, the constant movement of the heart as well as unpredictable changes in blood flow can make it difficult to maintain consistent contact with the heart during the ablation procedure, occasionally resulting in too large or too small of a lesion, Griswold and Gudino said. The robotic catheter uses novel robotic planning strategies to compensate for physiological movements of the heart and blood and that can be used while a patient undergoes MRI. By combining state-of-the art robotics with high-resolution, real-time imaging, the co-robotic catheter could significantly increase the accuracy and repeatability of the procedure, the researchers said. Stephen G. Sawicki of North Carolina State University in Raleigh said the third project is a wearable robot to be used in patients recovering from stroke. The platform will allow investigators to systematically test various robotic control methods and to compare them based on measurable physiological outcomes.