Robotic Etiquette:Socially Acceptable Navigation of Service Robots with Human Motion Pattern Learning and Prediction

Nonverbal and noncontact behaviors play a significant role in allowing service robots to structure their interactions withhumans.In this paper, a novel human-mimic mechanism of robot’s navigational skills was proposed for developing sociallyacceptable robotic etiquette.Based on the sociological and physiological concerns of interpersonal interactions in movement,several criteria in navigation were represented by constraints and incorporated into a unified probabilistic cost grid for safemotion planning and control, followed by an emphasis on the prediction of the human’s movement for adjusting the robot’spre-collision navigational strategy.The human motion prediction utilizes a clustering-based algorithm for modeling humans’indoor motion patterns as well as the combination of the long-term and short-term tendency prediction that takes into accountthe uncertainties of both velocity and heading direction.Both simulation and real-world experiments verified the effectivenessand reliability of the method to ensure human’s safety and comfort in navigation.A statistical user trials study was also given tovalidate the users’favorable views of the human-friendly navigational behavior.

Architecture and Software Design for a Service Robot in an Elderly-Care Scenario

Systems for ambient assisted living(AAL) that integrate service robots with sensor networks and user monitoring can help elderly people with their daily activities, allowing them to stay in their homes and live active lives for as long as possible. In this paper, we outline the AAL system currently developed in the European project Robot-Era, and describe the engineering aspects and the serviceoriented software architecture of the domestic robot, a service robot with advanced manipulation capabilities. Based on the robot operating system(ROS) middleware, our software integrates a large set of advanced algorithms for navigation, perception, and manipulation. In tests with real end users, the performance and acceptability of the platform are evaluated.

Information perception and feedback mechanism and key techniques of multi-modality human-robot interaction for service robots

With the increasing of the elderly population and the growing hearth care cost, the role of service robots in aiding the disabled and the elderly is becoming important. Many researchers in the world have paid much attention to heaRthcare robots and rehabilitation robots. To get natural and harmonious communication between the user and a service robot, the information perception/feedback ability, and interaction ability for service robots become more important in many key issues.

Research on Hand-eye Calibration Technology of Visual Service Robot Grasping Based on ROS

For the hand-eye calibration of the vision service robot,the traditional hand-eye calibration tech-nology can’t be realized which because the service robot is independently developed and there is no teaching device to feed back the pose information of the service robot in real time.In this paper,a hand-eye calibration method based on ROS(Robot Operating System)is proposed.In this method,ROS system is used to accurately control the arm of the service robot to rotate in different positions for many times.Meanwhile,the head camera of the service robot takes images of a fixed point in the scene.Then,the nonlinear equations were established ac-cording to the homography matrix of the two images and the position and pose information of the ROS system,and the accurate hand-eye relationship was optimized by the least square method.Finally,an experimental platform is built and the proposed hand-eye calibration method is verified.The experiment results show that the method is easy to operate,simple algorithm and correct result,which verifies the effectiveness of the algorithm and provides conditions for the realization of humanoid grasping of visual service robot.

Service Robot Localization Based on Global Vision and Stereo Vision

To satisfy different positioning accuracy demand in the movement of the service robot, a hierarchical localization method based on vision was proposed considering the positioning cost and computational efficiency. The hierarchical positioning method could be divided into two parts: the localization method based on global vision and the localization method based on binocular vision. The global vision-based localization method was applied to calculate the initial coordinates of the robot and realize real-time rough positioning with the dead-reckoning method in the first stage. In the last stage, the binocular vision-based localization method was adopted to obtain higher positioning accuracy to make sure that the service robot can successfully grab the object. Experiments indicate that the proposed algorithm can accurately evaluate the positioning performance, obtain up to ±2 cm positioning accuracy, and absolutely meet the positioning requirements of the indoor service robot.

Object servoing of differential-drive service robots using switched control

Object servoing is becoming more and more important for service robots. Because of the nonholonomicconstraints of a differential-drive service robot and the possibly changed pose of amovable object, it is challenging to design an object servoing scheme for the differential-driveservice robot such that it can asymptotically park at a predefined relative pose to that of the movableobject. In this paper, a novel object servoing scheme is proposed for the differential-driveservice robots using switched control. Each relative online pose is first estimated by using featuresof the movable object, the estimated pose is an input of an object servoing friendly parkingcontroller. The linear velocity and angular speed are then determined by the proposed controller.Simulation results validate the performance of the proposed object servoing scheme. Due to itslow online computational cost, the proposed scheme can be applied for the real-time tasks ofdifferential-drive service robots to movable objects.

Intelligence evolution for service robot： An ADRC perspective

The strategy of active disturbance rejection control （ADRC） and its applications in intelligence evolution for service robot are summarized. It is also shown that the philosophy of ADRC is consistent with the essential characteristics of intelligence evolution. Most importantly, we concentrate on five core issues which will be encountered when applying ADRC to deal with intelligence evolution for service robot, that is, how to eliminate the impact of unknown composite disturbances, how to handle the nonholonomic constraints in uncalibrated visual servoing, how to realize eye-hand-torque coordination, how to deal with the disturbance in simultaneous localization and mapping （SLAM）, and how to reject the imperfections induced by network in human-robot interaction. The main purpose of this paper is to clarify the challenges encountered on intelligence evolution for service robot when one applies ADRC to, hoping that more and more researchers can give some suggestions or work together to deal with these problems, and flourishing results of ADRC from both theory and applications.

Item Ownership Relationship Semantic Learning Strategy for Personalized Service Robot

In order to satisfy the robotic personalized service requirements that can select exclusive items to perform inference and planning according to different service individuals,the service robots need to have the ability to independently obtain the ownership relationship between humans and their carrying items.In this work,we present a novel semantic learning strategy for item ownership.Firstly,a human-carrying-items detection network based on human posture estimation and object detection model is used.Then,the transferred convolutional neural network is used to extract the characteristics of the objects and the back-end classifier to recognize the object instance.At the same time,the face detection and recognition model are used to identify the service individual.Finally,on the basis of the former two,the active learning of ownership items is completed.The experimental results show that the proposed ownership semantic learning strategy can determine the ownership relationship of private goods accurately and efficiently.The solution of this problem can improve the intelligence level of robot life service.

A deep Q-learning network based active object detection model with a novel training algorithm for service robots

This paper focuses on the problem of active object detection(AOD).AOD is important for service robots to complete tasks in the family environment,and leads robots to approach the target ob ject by taking appropriate moving actions.Most of the current AOD methods are based on reinforcement learning with low training efficiency and testing accuracy.Therefore,an AOD model based on a deep Q-learning network(DQN)with a novel training algorithm is proposed in this paper.The DQN model is designed to fit the Q-values of various actions,and includes state space,feature extraction,and a multilayer perceptron.In contrast to existing research,a novel training algorithm based on memory is designed for the proposed DQN model to improve training efficiency and testing accuracy.In addition,a method of generating the end state is presented to judge when to stop the AOD task during the training process.Sufficient comparison experiments and ablation studies are performed based on an AOD dataset,proving that the presented method has better performance than the comparable methods and that the proposed training algorithm is more effective than the raw training algorithm.

Multimodal Integration Processes in Plan-Based Service Robot Control

Cross-modal integration processes are essential for service robots to reliably perceive relevant parts of the partially known unstructured environment, We demonstrate how multimodal integration on different abstraction levels leads to reasonable behavior that would be difficult to achieve with unimodal approaches. Sensing and acting modalities are composed to multimodal robot skills via a fuzzy multisensor fusion approach. Single modalities constitute basic robot skills that can dynamically be composed to appropriate behavior by symbolic planning. Furthermore, multimodal integration is exploited to answer relevant queries about the partially known environment. All these approaches are successfully implemented and tested on our mobile service robot platform TASER,

A Selective Attention Guided Initiative Semantic Cognition Algorithm for Service Robot

With the development of artificial intelligence and robotics, the study on service robot has made a significant progress in recent years. Service robot is required to perceive users and environment in unstructured domestic environment. Based on the perception,service robot should be capable of understanding the situation and discover service task. So robot can assist humans for home service or health care more accurately and with initiative. Human can focus on the salient things from the mass observation information. Humans are capable of utilizing semantic knowledge to make some plans based on their understanding of the environment. Through intelligent space platform, we are trying to apply this process to service robot. A selective attention guided initiatively semantic cognition algorithm in intelligent space is proposed in this paper. It is specifically designed to provide robots with the cognition needed for performing service tasks. At first, an attention selection model is built based on saliency computing and key area. The area which is highly relevant to service task could be located and referred as focus of attention（FOA）. Second, a recognition algorithm for FOA is proposed based on a neural network. Some common objects and user behavior are recognized in this step. At last, a unified semantic knowledge base and corresponding reasoning engine is proposed using recognition result. Related experiments in a real life scenario demonstrated that our approach is able to mimic the recognition process in humans, make robots understand the environment and discover service task based on its own cognition. In this way, service robots can act smarter and achieve better service efficiency in their daily work.

Individual difference of artificial emotion applied to a service robot

In order to enable personalized natural interaction in service robots, artificial emotion is needed which helps robots to appear as individuals. In the emotion modeling theory of emotional Markov chain model （eMCM） for spontaneous transfer and emotional hidden Markov model （eHMM） for stimulated transfer, there are three problems： 1） Emotion distinguishing problem： whether adjusting parameters of the model have any effects on individual emotions; 2） How much effect the change makes; 3） The problem of different initial emotional states leading to different resultant emotions from a given stimuli. To solve these problems, a research method of individual emotional difference is proposed based on metric multidimensional scaling theory. Using a dissimilarity matrix, a scalar product matrix is calculated. Subsequently, an individual attribute reconstructing matrix can be obtained by principal component factor analysis. This can display individual emotion difference with low dimension. In addition, some mathematical proofs are carried out to explain experimental results. Synthesizing the results and proofs, corresponding conclusions are obtained. This new method provides guidance for the adjustment of parameters of emotion models in artificial emotion theory.

Cloud-assisted cognition adaptation for service robots in changing home environments

Robots need more intelligence to complete cognitive tasks in home environments.In this paper,we present a new cloud-assisted cognition adaptation mechanism for home service robots,which learns new knowledge from other robots.In this mechanism,a change detection approach is implemented in the robot to detect changes in the user’s home environment and trigger the adaptation procedure that adapts the robot’s local customized model to the environmental changes,while the adaptation is achieved by transferring knowledge from the global cloud model to the local model through model fusion.First,three different model fusion methods are proposed to carry out the adaptation procedure,and two key factors of the fusion methods are emphasized.Second,the most suitable model fusion method and its settings for the cloud–robot knowledge transfer are determined.Third,we carry out a case study of learning in a changing home environment,and the experimental results verify the efficiency and effectiveness of our solutions.The experimental results lead us to propose an empirical guideline of model fusion for the cloud–robot knowledge transfer.

Intelligent Service Robot for High-Speed Railway Passengers

With the rapid development of road traffic,the number of high-speed rail passengers is huge,and the flow of people is dense.In epidemic situation,it is prone to intensive infection in high-speed rail carriages,which is not conducive to national prevention and control work.Based on face recognition technology,the intelligent service robot for high-speed rail passengers walks in accordance with the set route and detects the face mask of high-speed rail passengers.The face database of high-speed rail passengers is compared in real time.The passengers who do not wear masks are reminded in time to reduce the risk of infection.Moreover,the robot can accurately remind the passengers of leaving the station in time,and has the functions of automatic selling and student ticket checking.The experimental result is shown to promote the further development of high-speed rail services.

Automatic generation of context-aware workflow documents for ubiquitous robot services

Intelligent robots in ubiquitous computing environment should be able to receive a variety of surrounding informa tion and provide users with appropriate services. A developer can describe the robot services that are proper to users＇ envir onments by using his or her various environments, and process them through the execution engine. However, it is difficult for a developer to describe and develop robot services, who knows all surrounding information which is called context infor mation. If there is a method for describing and documenting robot services in intuitive expressions, that is to use graphical user interfaces（GUls）, it would be very helpful. This paper suggests that robot service developers describe robot services us ing intuitive GUls with contextawareness. And the services can be automatically generated into workflow documents. Robot services that robot service developers have made with intuitive GUIs can be automatically generated into workflow docu ments by using the object modeling technique（OMT）. Developers can describe robot services based on contextaware work flow language（CAWL ）. For testing, scenariobased robot services are described using CAWLbased development tool, and their workflow documents are automatically generated.

Two types of coaxial self-balancing robots

Two types of coaxial self-balancing robots(CSBR)were proposed,one can be used as a mobile robot platform for parts transporting in unmanned factory or as an inspector in dangerous areas,and the other can be used as a personal transporter ridden in cities.Mechanical designing and control structures as well as control strategies were described and compared in order to get a general way to develop such robots.A state feedback controller and a fuzzy controller were designed for the robot using DC servo motors and the robot using torque motors,respectively.The experiments indicate that the robots can realize various desired operations smoothly and agilely at the velocity of 0.6 m/s with an operator of 65 kg.Furthermore,the robustness of the controllers is revealed since these controllers can stabilize the robot even with unknown external disturbances.

Semantic Region Estimation of Assistant Robot for the Elderly Long-Term Operation in Indoor Environment

In this work, in order to improve spatial recognition abilities for the long-term operation tasks of the assistant robot for the elderly, a novel approach of semantic region estimation is proposed. We define a novel graphbased semantic region descriptions, which are estimated in a dynamically fashion. We propose a two-level update algorithm, namely, Symbols update level and Regions update level. The algorithm firstly adopts particle filter to update weights of the symbols, and then use the Viterbi algorithm to estimate the region the robot stays in based on those weights, optimally. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed approach can solve problems of the long-term operation and kidnapped robot problem.

Main Stages of Evolution from Mechanical Automatic Systems to Humanoid Robot

Since ancient times, man has been concerned to create an artificial structure similar to itself. This concern has remained constant attention and creative thinkers most profound since antiquity until today, it is of greatest interest. This article aims to highlight the most significant moments of the evolution from mechanical creatures mythical or real, from antiquity to the present humanoid robots. There are thus shown the most significant variants humanoid imagined or realized since Talos, described in Greek mythology, continuing with mechanical machines during late Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and then the Renaissance of the post-renaissance, then they are shown the main achievements of the industrialization period from the nineteenth to the early part of the twentieth century, then to the most important made in the last decades of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century. The work is important to stimulate concerns academic theorists and practice but also in the industrial practice specializing in robotics and more generally in mechatronics. It also opens the prospect of defining the concept of an artificial humanoid useful both for human prosthesis with certain disabilities, and a humanoid robot performance.

Enhanced Map-Based Indoor Navigation System of a Humanoid Robot Using Ultrasound Measurements

During recent years, walking humanoid robots have gained popularity from wheeled vehicle robots in various assistive roles in human’s environment. Self-localization is a necessary requirement for the humanoid robots used in most of the assistive tasks. This is because the robots have to be able to locate themselves in their environment in order to accomplish their tasks. In addition, autonomous navigation of walking robots to the pre-defined destination is equally important mission, and therefore it is required that the robot knows its initiate location precisely. The indoor navigation is based on the map of the environment used by the robot. Assuming that the walking robot is capable of locating itself based on its initiate location and the distance walked from it, there are still factors that impair the map-based navigation. One of them is the robot’s limited ability to keep its direction when it is walking, which means that the robot is not able to walk directly from one point to another due to a stochastic error in walking direction. In this paper we present an algorithm for straightening the walking path using distance measurements by built-in sonar sensors of a NAO humanoid robot. The proposed algorithm enables the robot to walk directly from one point to another, which enables precise map-based indoor navigation.

A Task-Oriented Hybrid Cloud Architecture with Deep Cognition Mechanism for Intelligent Space

Intelligent Space(IS)is widely regarded as a promising paradigm for improving quality of life through using service task processing.As the field matures,various state-of-the-art IS architectures have been proposed.Most of the IS architectures designed for service robots face the problems of fixedfunction modules and low scalability when performing service tasks.To this end,we propose a hybrid cloud service robot architecture based on a Service-Oriented Architecture(SOA).Specifically,we first use the distributed deployment of functional modules to solve the problem of high computing resource occupancy.Then,the Socket communication interface layer is designed to improve the calling efficiency of the function module.Next,the private cloud service knowledge base and the dataset for the home environment are used to improve the robustness and success rate of the robot when performing tasks.Finally,we design and deploy an interactive system based on Browser/Server(B/S)architecture,which aims to display the status of the robot in real-time as well as to expand and call the robot service.This system is integrated into the private cloud framework,which provides a feasible solution for improving the quality of life.Besides,it also fully reveals how to actively discover and provide the robot service mechanism of service tasks in the right way.The results of extensive experiments show that our cloud system provides sufficient prior knowledge that can assist the robot in completing service tasks.It is an efficient way to transmit data and reduce the computational burden on the robot.By using our cloud detection module,the robot system can save approximately 25% of the averageCPUusage and reduce the average detection time by 0.1 s compared to the locally deployed system,demonstrating the reliability and practicality of our proposed architecture.