Domestic Service Robots [TC Spotlight]

Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems

Springer eBooks, 2012

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

• The state of the art in welfare-oriented and housekeeping robots are analyzed. • Customer requirements for welfare-oriented and housekeeping robots are analyzed. • Customer needs are transferred to a design features for reaching large masses. • Definition of priorities and design inputs for housekeeping robots. • List of design features for welfare-oriented robots for care of elderly with dementia. a b s t r a c t The aim of this study is the analysis of the state of the art in consumer robotics dedicated to personal care and housekeeping, for further critical analysis of it. After interviewing different users we will follow a methodology to find the voice of the customer. From these interviews we get the customer's needs which will be structured and ordered in a hierarchy that will help us to set the priorities, concluding with the design requirements and the basic features that the robot must have.

Τhe main core of this paper is a categorization that has been drafted based on the specific task to be performed by home-used robots. Parameter that is discussed for sorting out is the object of operation. In this text, the authors address, tentatively, the need of exhaustive classification for these ubiquitous helpers since technological development have demonstrated that they are viable commercial products and not only common scenarios for science fiction. Generally, it is clear that it doesn't exist, so far, a single systematic categorization of application scenarios for smart appliances.

The dream of a domestic robot-one which would take over daily household chores such as cleaning, watering plants or taking out the rubbish-has not perished in the 21st century. But the delivery of such a device is certainly overdue. It is difficult to build robots which can serve domestic functions because i) moving intelligently through the uncontrolled environment of a house is technically challenging; ii) portable power supplies are still not equal to the tasks at hand; iii) machines with enough behavioural complexity to be useful are still rather unreliable; iv) Machines powerful enough to do useful domestic work need to be safe enough for consumers to use in their homes and v) the need to keep costs to a minimum imposes severe constraints on robot design. Some solutions to these problems, in the form of experimental robots, are described and some tasks which may be able to be tackled by specialised machines are itemised.

Poiesis & Praxis, 2012

Interdisciplinary research calls together different scientific disciplines in order to answer a research question which cannot be answered by an individual discipline alone. Technology Assessment (TA) is a problem-oriented approach (Bechmann and Frederichs 1996) dealing with the non-technical aspects of technology development, in order to gain knowledge about the (un-)intended consequences, the (un-)desired impacts, the main and side-effects and the chances and risks of (new) technologies. Moreover, by applying TA, scientists can develop potential solutions to solve societal or political problems related to, for example, the ''grand challenges'' such as ''feeding 10 billion people,'' demographic change, global health. These societal problems need to be reframed or transformed into research questions to be dealt with by interdisciplinary research. Which scientific disciplines are invited to participate in an interdisciplinary research project is defined with respect to these research questions, namely those which are identified as to be relevant to answer them. Therefore, framing the problems and developing research questions out of it becomes the key for any interdisciplinary project (Decker 2001). For the interdisciplinary TA project on service robotics, to which the papers of this focus contribute, the problem setting and the identification of the relevant disciplines were described elsewhere (Decker et al. 2011; Decker 2012). Since the project aims for a TA of service robotics on a general level (even though referring to case studies for illustration), the relevant disciplines include economics, ethics, jurisprudence and psychology of work. While the first three are traditionally part of an

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, 2000

2009

This paper introduces Care-O-bot R 3, a highly integrated and compact service robot with manipulation, navigation and vision capabilities. In particular, Care-O-bot R 3 combines the best of available technology including a 7 DOF light-weight arm, an omnidirectional platform and many high-end sensors along with a sustainable, end user oriented design concept enabling many interaction possibilities.

Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 2016

h i g h l i g h t s • The state of the art in welfare-oriented and housekeeping robots are analyzed. • Customer requirements for welfare-oriented and housekeeping robots are analyzed. • Customer needs are transferred to a design features for reaching large masses. • Definition of priorities and design inputs for housekeeping robots. • List of design features for welfare-oriented robots for care of elderly with dementia.

Cutting Edge Robotics, 2005