Robotic Home Assistant Care-O-bot® 3 Product Vision and Innovation Platform

Abstract

The development of a mobile robot to assist people in their home is a long term goal of Fraunhofer IPA. In order to meet this goal, three generations of a robotic home assistant "Care-O-bot ®" have been developed so far. As a vision of a future household product, Care-O-bot ® 3 is equipped with the latest industrial state-of-the art hardware components. It offers all modern multimedia and interaction equipment as well as most advanced sensors and control. It is able to navigate among humans, detect and grasp objects and pass them safely to human users using its tray. Care-O-bot ® 3 has been presented to the public on several occasions where it distributed drinks to the visitors of trade fairs and events.

Grasping and Placing Operation for Labware Transportation in Life Science Laboratories using Mobile Robots

“…This information includes the required task (grasp/place) and the holder number. According to the holder number (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8), the robot moves to the required position (1 or 2) for performing the task. In this case, each mark is considered as a reference for 4 related holder where the holders 1, 2, 5, and 6 belong to a particular robot position.…”

“Maybe It Becomes a Buddy, But Do Not Call It a Robot” – Seamless Cooperation between Companion Robotics and Smart Homes

“…There are a number of related national and European projects; e.g. Care-O-Bot, a mobile service robot focussed on the execution of fetch-and-carry tasks to support the personnel of older persons nursing home in their daily tasks [4]; RoboCare, a multi-agent human assistance system, composed of a robotic agent, sensors for continuous monitoring, and additional reasoning systems [5]; K-SERA, a social robot that monitors, helps and alerts persons with COPD during their daily activities, to facilitate effective selfmanagement of their disease [6]; and Florence, a robot with existing home automation infrastructures and local and remote communication services, to improve home care for older persons [7]. Similarly, projects like CompanionAble [8] and Mobiserv [9] recognize that the next frontier towards close and sensitive cooperation between a smart home and a social companion robot would be via improving natural and inspiring interaction, and addressing more user needs in a trusted manner.…”

The ENRICHME Project: Lessons Learnt from a First Interaction with the Elderly

“…One of the solutions that received much attention in recent years is the use of social robots for personalized care. Social robots can be good companions for the elderly as they can provide monitoring [2], they can alert their families or caregivers in case of emergencies [8], and they can stimulate their cognitive functions [17,19]. ENRICHME is a EU Horizon2020 project whose purpose is to develop a socially assistive robot for the elderly with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).…”