Personal Space of Small Mobile Robot Moving towards Standing or Sitting Elderly Individuals

Recently, Japan has experienced a low birthrate and an aging population. The development of communication robots, such as cleaning and a care-giver robot, has been progressing. Care-giver robots provide daily assistance, including contacting emergency services. This study is part of the ＂study on planning techniques of living space in harmony with robots＂, and focused on the elderly. Minimum distance was the subjects felt ＂I do not want any more approached＂. Subjects were 21 elderly persons （eight males and thirteen females）, aged 66-86 years. The experimental room was an assembly room in a public accommodation （14 m× 6.5 m）. The small mobile robot used in this experiment was external form dimensions of 120 mm （W）× 130 mm （D）× 70 mm （H）, In this experiment, considering the personal space as the small mobile robot is watching robot without support function for person. The robot moved toward standing or sitting subjects at constant velocities from a distance 5 m apart. Research factors are 5 angles （0°, 45°, 90°, 135° and 180°） and 2 speeds （0.08 m/s and 0.24 m/s）.

Study on Individual Distance of the Non-Japanese for the Small Mobile Robot

This study seeks to establish techniques of architecture planning for living robots and human together. This experiment is elemental step to search relations between a small mobile robot and human. This experiment is ＂How can a small mobile robot approach to individuals distances of foreigners （non-Japanese） up to the point where foreigners （non-Japanese） do not feel like approaching any more＂. It focuses on a small mobile robot and identifies distances at which the robot can approach to individuals, particularly adult foreign male. This paper clarifies how the individual distances change by the robot＇s speed and angle of approach varies.

Localization of Small Mobile Robot by Low-Cost GPS Receiver

This article deals with a problem of the robot localization in the outdoor environment by using the GPS （global positioning system） data. In order to navigate the robot, it is necessary to transform the global position into the local map in the form of two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system. The transformation is based on the model of the Earth-WGS 84 reference ellipsoid. The aim of this article is to experimentally evaluate a set of low-cost GPS receivers applicable as position sensors for small outdoor mobile robots. The evaluation is based on series of measurements executed in different times and places. The measured data is processed by given procedure and acquired positions are transformed into the local coordinate system. Accordingly the accuracy of the measured positions is statistically evaluated. The evaluation of used GPS receivers is done by comparison with data acquired by high-end geodetic GPS system Leica 1200, which is used as a reference GPS system.

Personal Space of Small Mobile Robot Moving towards Crouching, Sitting and Supine Adult Males

In this paper, the authors present a basic study of the planning techniques for human-robot living spaces. Taking into account the previous studies, the authors clarify at what distances adult males feel comfortable with a small mobile robot. The authors investigated the impact of differences in position in a personal distance of the robot. The authors make the robot to move towards the subjects at different speeds and from five different angles （0°, 45°, 90°, 135° and 180°） while they were crouching, sitting on the floor and supine. In this experiment, about setting up a small mobile robot, the authors explained the robot does not have a support function for the people watching. A questionnaire survey was also conducted before and after the experiments. The result is that differences were out to personal distance with the robot due to the difference in position. The research finds that personal distance also becomes small position changes, sight line becomes lower. In addition, individual distance is increased when the slow speed as well as the paper before.

A Study on the Distances of Small Mobile Robot Moves towards Infants

In recent years, it is remarkable that various robots are being developed, and the development of robot technology is beginning to be taken into an actual living space. There are still many questions that we will have to answer for the harmonization of living together with a robot. This study is focused on ＂the study of how to plan and design a living space in harmonizing with robots＂, and focused on the effects of infants （subjects） along with the distance between robots and themselves. The study is to seek for the minimum distance for the subjects who felt that ＂I do not want a robot to be any closer being approached to me＂. This experiment was conducted among 30 infants at the kindergarten, utilizing a small experimental robot. A small robot whose dimension is 120 mm （W） ×130 mm （D） × 70 mm （H）, approaching infants as is to see if it would make any differences to the infant＇s reactions.

A Study on the Individual Distance of a Small RobotMoving towards Adult Male and Female

In Japan, robots are a regular feature of daily life and in rehabilitation support care and reporting on any emergencies involving the elderly. This study is on design guidelines for the living space with robots and can be applied to the architectural planning and focused on the basic environmental primary factor. The key terms were space, people-adult male and female, positions, and the robot-size, speed-settings and approaching angles. This research is the distances a small mobile robot moves to an adult male compared with that toward an adult female. The authors focus on a small mobile robot and identify the distances from which the robot can approach individuals, and also clarify how the distances to individuals change as the robot＇s speed and angle of approach varies. The study did this experiment to analyze 30 patterns per person and also when at an angle of the difference of male and female, two position standing/seated and three speed-settings0.08 m/sec, 0.24 m/sec and 0.48 m/sec and five directions--0°, 45°, 90°, 135° and 180°.

A Study about the Effect of Space Size on the Individual Distance

This study is the design guidelines for the living space with robots. The study can be applied to the architectural planning and focused on the basic environmental primary factor. The authors focused on space size, specifical distance from the wall in the front direction, position, and distance between an individual as factors affecting individual distance. The authors research the distances a small mobile robot moves to a six mats space compared with that toward a distances 5 m or more （space less physical factors）. The following three results were obtained： （1） The individual distance is smaller than 30 cm in both the approach angle in the experiment space of six mats; （2） The distance from the wall in the front increased, and the individual distance between a participant and a robot also increased; （3） In terms of body position, the upright positioning was clarified and the individual distance was small.