Personal Robot
Encyclopedia
A personal robot is one whose human interface and design make it useful for individuals. This is by contrast to industrial robots which are generally configured and operated by robotics specialists. A personal robot is one that enables an individual to automate the repetitive or menial part of home or work life making them more productive.
Similar to the way that the transition from mainframe computers to the personal computers revolutionized personal productivity, the transition from industrial robotics to personal robotics is changing productivity in home and work settings.
Turning a robot
like ASIMO
or into a universally applicable personal robot or artificial servant is mainly a
programming task. As of 2011 vast improvements in motion planning
, computer vision
(esp. scene recognition), natural language processing
, and automated reasoning
are indispensable to make this a possibility.
Similar to the way that the transition from mainframe computers to the personal computers revolutionized personal productivity, the transition from industrial robotics to personal robotics is changing productivity in home and work settings.
Turning a robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
like ASIMO
ASIMO
is a humanoid robot created by Honda. Introduced in 2000, ASIMO, which is an acronym for "Advanced Step in Innovative MObility", was created to be a helper to people. With aspirations of helping people who lack full mobility, ASIMO is used to encourage young people to study science and mathematics...
or into a universally applicable personal robot or artificial servant is mainly a
programming task. As of 2011 vast improvements in motion planning
Motion planning
Motion planning is a term used in robotics for the process of detailing a task into discrete motions....
, computer vision
Computer vision
Computer vision is a field that includes methods for acquiring, processing, analysing, and understanding images and, in general, high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical or symbolic information, e.g., in the forms of decisions...
(esp. scene recognition), natural language processing
Natural language processing
Natural language processing is a field of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human languages; it began as a branch of artificial intelligence....
, and automated reasoning
Automated reasoning
Automated reasoning is an area of computer science dedicated to understand different aspects of reasoning. The study in automated reasoning helps produce software which allows computers to reason completely, or nearly completely, automatically...
are indispensable to make this a possibility.
History
- iRobotIRobotiRobot Corporation is an American advanced technology company founded in 1990 and incorporated in Delaware in 2000, the iRobot Corporation designs robots such as an autonomous home vacuum cleaner , the Scooba that scrubs and cleans hard floors, and military and police robots, such as the PackBot...
Corp. introduces the RoombaRoombaThe Roomba is a series of autonomous robotic vacuum cleaners sold by iRobot. Under normal operating conditions, it is able to navigate a living space and common obstacles while vacuuming the floor...
in 2002 - The Institute for Personal Robots in EducationInstitute for Personal Robots in EducationInstitute for Personal Robots in Education was initiated by a $1 million grant from Microsoft Research to Bryn Mawr College and the Georgia Institute of Technology and announced in July 2006. IPRE is designing introductory computer science curricula centered around a Personal Robot...
introduces the concept to teach computing using personal robots in 2006. - Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
Personal Robotics Program introduces PR1 in 2007. - Willow GarageWillow GarageWillow Garage is a robotics research lab and technology incubator devoted to developing hardware and open source software for personal robotics applications. It was started in late 2006 by Scott Hassan, an early Google employee who helped develop Google's technology. Steve Cousins is the president...
introduces the PR2 robot in 2010.
See also
- ROS (Robot Operating System)ROS (Robot Operating System)Robot Operating System is a software framework for robot software development, providing operating system-like functionality on a heterogenous computer cluster. ROS was originally developed in 2007 under the name switchyard by the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in support of the...
- Domestic robotDomestic robotA domestic robot is a robot used for household chores. Thus far, there are only a few limited models, though science fiction writers and other speculators have suggested that they could become more common in the future...
- Microsoft Robotics StudioMicrosoft Robotics StudioMicrosoft Robotics Developer Studio is a Windows-based environment for robot control and simulation. It is aimed at academic, hobbyist, and commercial developers and handles a wide variety of robot hardware....
- URBIURBIUrbi is an open source cross-platform software platform in C++ used to develop applications for robotics and complex systems. Urbi is based on the UObject distributed C++ component architecture. It also includes the urbiscript orchestration language which is a parallel and event-driven script...