Personal robot assisting transportation to support active human life — Human-following method based on model predictive control for adjacency without collision

Abstract

An aging society exists throughout the entire world. In order to support the aging society, service robots that are able to improve our comfortable lifestyle and increase longevity have been developed. However, excessive and premature robot support may cause not only the deterioration of our physical ability but also shortening of the period of well-being. In our research group, a personal robot that can carry baggage and automatically follow a human being was developed to overcome the above problem. The people that use this personal robot will be able to walk outside with empty hands, even after shopping, thus contributing to their health management.In this paper, the past prototypes of the personal robot are discussed, and the new robot is presented. Also, a humanfollowing method based on model predictive control is proposed to realize the contradicting requirements of both shortening the relative distance between the owner and the robot and ensuring no collision. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified by numerical simulation of the prototype robot.

IR tag detection and tracking with omnidirectional camera using track-before-detect particle filter

“…The estimated position in the robot-based coordinate system (x, y), which is calculated by averaging the estimated position of the tags, is given to 'Following Control' to determine the adjacent relative distance between the robot and the user. [15] Figure 12 shows the outdoor experimental environment. The user walks along the white square path in a counterclockwise direction at 0.88 m/s averaged walking speed.…”

Autonomous multi-function floor cleaning robot with zig zag algorithm

“…Authors in [3] discussed the massive introduction of robots and the transition of the economic system to robonomics (robot-based economy) that might affect job opportunities especially where robots are replacing human tasks. Despite this concern, industrial robots have been used for several decades now in warehouse [4,5], logistics [6,7], agriculture [8][9][10], education [11][12][13][14], financial trade [15,16], medicine [17][18][19][20], transportation [21][22][23], tourism and hospitality [24,25], and others. Recently, robots are also developed as home appliances as the individuals' requests expands [26].…”

Exploring the need of an assistive robot to support reading process: A pilot study

“…A large number of research projects are designed to develop assistive robots that can provide aids to its users and these kinds of assistance are ranged from physically support to socially support specific needs among humans (physically vs. socially contact) [1][2] [3][4][5] [6]. Recently, attention has been given for developing personal robots that can provide intelligent support during daily lives, such as PR (personal robot) to assist the transportation of active human life whereby the robot can carry baggage and automatically follow human [7], and kiosk type robot service that can help elderly people in managing their health condition [8].…”