Embedded distributed vision system for humanoid soccer robot

Computer vision is one of the most challenging applications in sensor systems since the signal is complex from spatial and logical point of view. Due to these characteristics vision applications require high computing resources, which makes them especially difficult to use in embedded systems, like mobile robots with reduced amount memory and computing power. In this work a distributed architecture for humanoid visual control is presented using specific nodes for vision processing cooperating with the main CPU to coordinate the movements of the exploring behaviours. This architecture provides additional computing resources in a reduced area, without disturbing tasks related with low level control (mainly kinematics) with the ones involving vision processing algorithms. The information is exchanged allowing to linking control loops between both nodes.This work was supported from the Spanish MICINN project SIDIRELI DPI2008-06737-C02-01/02 and FEDER founds

The Iterative Development of the Humanoid Robot Kaspar: An Assistive Robot for Children with Autism

This paper gives an overview of the design and development of the humanoid robot Kaspar. Since the first Kaspar robot was developed in 2005, the robotic platform has undergone continuous development driven by the needs of users and technological advancements enabling the integration of new features. We discuss in detail the iterative development of Kaspar’s design and clearly explain the rational of each development, which has been based on the user requirements as well as our years of experience in robot assisted therapy for children with autism, particularly focusing on how the developments benefit the children we work with. Further to this, we discuss the role and benefits of robotic autonomy on both children and therapist along with the progress that we have made on the Kaspar robot’s autonomy towards achieving a semi-autonomous child-robot interaction in a real world setting.Peer reviewe