INSERVUM - Intelligente Serviceumgebungen

Intelligent systems which are equipped with sensors and actuators and operate in direct contact with the real physical environment will play an essential role in the automation of services. They will help to reduce risks, and will provide convenience and additional quality of life. Assistance systems will - in cooperation with the user - enhance and complement his natural abilities in various ways. Flexible, intelligent robots and dedicated handling systems will be part of intelligent service environments. Today the scientific and technical problems on the way to real products still pose a major challenge. The results of the project INSERVUM (which was funded by the German government) which are included in this volume represent a substantial progress towards this goal. Most contributions in this volume are concerned with new algorithms and components which play a key role in service system applications: Intelligent, low-cost sensor systems, image processing, modeling of the environment and map building, navigation in difficult environments, and principles for control of service systems. A novel integrated tool allows the simulation of service robots and the automatic optimization of sensor configurations. Other contributions consider safety issues. Also contained are reports about two real application scenarios: An automatic fuelling station and mobility aids for disabled persons. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: T00B1132+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

MORPHA: Communication and Interaction with Intelligent, Anthropomorphic Robot Assistants

Robot systems, which are employed outside traditional manufacturing applications, socalled service robots or robot assistants, have by far not reached the economic potential of industrial robots yet. There are several factors, which explain this circumstance. Operating robots in unmodified natural environments inhabited by human beings imposes requirements on the robots, which are incomparably higher than the demands made on the capabilities of industrial robots. These requirements concern the robots' sensory perception capabilities, their mobility and dexterity, and their task planning, reasoning and decision making capabilities. The technology available today meets these demands only to a very limited extend. A limiting factor is also the lack of interfaces, which allow a human-friendly, intuitive, and versatile communication and interaction with the robots. Such interfaces are essential for efficiently programming and instructing the robots, which is in turn a prerequisite for an effective and flexible use of robot assistants

The Robotic Bar -- An Integrated Demonstration of Man-Robot Interaction in a Service Scenario

Coming out of the labs, the first robots are currently appearing on the consumer market. Initially they target rather simple application scenarios ranging from entertainment to home convenience. However, one can expect, that they will capture more complex areas soon. These robots will collaborate and interactively communicate with their human users. All this does require appropriate manmachine interaction technologies and considerable cognitive abilities on the robot's side. Consumer acceptance will strongly depend on the integrated system. Thus, system integration and evaluation of the integrated system become increasingly important. This paper describes our approach to construct a robotic assistance system. We present experience with an integrated technology demonstration and the exposure of the integrated system to the public