And now, a new member of the lab has joined the team to help understand things like balance and walking: Circuit, the robotic “dog” who comes complete with artificial intelligence built in.

Circuit is what’s called a quadruped robot (“robot dog”), and he’s used to explore new ways of supporting older adults’ safety at home.

Led by Director of Physical Therapy Harsimran Baweja, the SMART Neuroscience Lab is using Circuit to study whether robot dogs equipped with artificial intelligence and advanced sensors can reliably track human movement during everyday activities.

Auburn mechanical engineering student Tyler Wadlington is working alongside Baweja on the study.

“Working with Dr. Baweja has pushed me much further than I expected when I first joined the lab.” Wadlington said. “He has challenged me to take ownership of problems I initially knew nothing about and learn them from the ground up. For example, I had never seriously worked with robotics before, but he trusted me to help lead the development of the robotic dog as a potential assistive technology for older adults or people with neurological conditions.”

Right now, Wadlington said, he is learning how to program the robot to perform basic tasks, and eventually he hopes to incorporate AI so it can operate more autonomously.

“The project focuses on improving the robot’s ‘person-following’ ability—allowing the robot to safely detect and follow an individual in real time while they move through their home,” Baweja explained. “Real homes present complex challenges for robots, including clutter, changing lighting conditions, and multiple people moving in the same space. Our research examines how these factors affect tracking accuracy and reliability.

“By testing Circuit in controlled but realistic environments, our team is evaluating how well quadruped robots can monitor mobility and detect potential fall risks in older adults.”

Baweja said this exploratory work represents one of the first efforts to study robot dogs as an assistive tool for fall monitoring and aging-related care. Because the robot has AI built into it, it is able to learn from its environment and ultimately that will help it navigate potential trip hazards and other issues for those with mobility assistance needs.
Wadlington said what excited him the most is the human side of the work.

“As a mechanical engineering student, I spend a lot of time learning how to build systems, but this lab is teaching me how those systems interact with people—things like how a robot should follow someone, how intuitive it should be to use, and how to make the technology supportive without being intrusive,” he said.

As an engineering student, Wadlington said his experience in the SMART lab has shown him that engineering isn’t just about building advanced technology.

“It’s about designing systems that genuinely improve people’s quality of life,” he said. “Being part of a project that could eventually support people facing challenges like aging or neurological disease has given my engineering work a much deeper sense of purpose.

The interdisciplinary project between kinesiology and engineering is leading to information that Baweja and Wadlington hope will improve lives down the road.

“The goal is not immediate deployment, but to establish foundational evidence about safety, reliability and limitations before assistive robots can be considered for real-world use,” he explained. “Findings from this research could help guide future technologies that combine robotics and artificial intelligence to support safer, more independent aging.”