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Service Robotics
 

Service Robotics - Applications and Safety Issues in an Emerging Market

Workshop W20 at the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence 2000 (ECAI'00) in Berlin 22 Aug 2000.

Thomas Röfer, Axel Lankenau, Reinhard Moratz

Abstract

"Service robots refill vehicles, reconstruct nuclear power plants, take care of the elderly, observe museums, explore other planets or clean aircraft. So what are service robots? Service robots form an intermediate stage in the evolution from the industrial robot to the personal robot, which might be an important part of our lives in 20 years. Service robots are mobile, manipulative, interact with human beings, or perform tasks autonomously that relieve the human being." (IEEE and IPA-FhG Database on ServiceRobotics).

According to a market analysis published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) and the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) in October 1999, the total number of service robots installed worldwide will almost be quintupled within three years time. This forecast does not cover toy robots and vacuum cleaning robots (estimated number of installed units: 450000 in 2002).

This workshop will focus on the research issues that have to be understood in order to facilitate the take off of service robots as a billion dollar market. It will address the following topics:

  • Safety in service robotics
  • Arm structures in service robots
  • Shared control in manned service robots (wheelchairs etc.)
  • Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI) for service robots
  • Social impacts of service robotics

The goal of the workshop is to thoroughly discuss the topics mentioned above in order to find out which parts of the service robotic domain are already covered by robotic research and which are blank spots on the map so far. The organizing committee intends to compile a publication that gives an overview about robotic research issues that are fundamental in the design and implementation of service robots.

Workshop Schedule

Time Event
 

9:00

Opening Talk: (Chair: Axel Lankenau)

Service Robotics - State of the Art in an Emerging Market
T. Röfer (Univ. of Bremen, Germany)
 

9:30
 

10:00

 Navigation of Service-Robots: (Chair: Axel Lankenau)

A Probabilistic Method for Planning Collision-free Trajectories of Multiple Mobile Robots
M. Bennewitz, W. Burgard (Univ. of Freiburg, Germany)

Diagrammatic Instruction-Maps for Human-Robot Interaction
R. Moratz, C. Freksa, T. Barkowsky (Univ. of Hamburg, Germany)

10:30 Coffee Break
 

11:00
 

11:30

 Shared-Control in Service-Robots: (Chair: Reinhard Moratz)

Shared-Control Architecture: Concepts and Experiments
U. Nunes, R. Cortesão (Univ. of Coimbra, Portugal)

The Role of Shared-Control in Service Robots
A. Lankenau, T. Röfer (Univ. of Bremen, Germany)
12:00 Lunch Break
 

14:00
 

14:30

 Human-Machine Interaction: (Chair: Thomas Röfer)

Service Robotics and the Issue of Integrated Intelligence: the CARL Project
L. Seabra Lopes, K.L. Doty, F. Vaz, J.A. Fonseca (Univ. of Aveiro, Portugal)

A Web Based Interface for Service Robots with Learning Capabilities
R. Marín, P. J. Sanz, A. P. del Pobil (Univ. of Jaume, Spain)

15:00 Coffee Break
15:30 Plenary Discussion (Chair: Thomas Röfer)

Program Committee

  • Anibal T. de Almeida (University of Coimbra, Portugal)
  • Christian Freksa (University of Hamburg, Germany)
  • Bernd Krieg-Brückner (University of Bremen, Germany)
  • Axel Lankenau (University of Bremen, Germany)
  • Reinhard Moratz (University of Hamburg, Germany)
  • Urbano Nunes (University of Coimbra, Portugal)
  • Angel Pasqual del Pobil (Universidad Jaume I, Spain)
  • Thomas Röfer (University of Bremen, Germany)
  • Spyros Tzafestas (University of Athens, Greece)
Dr.-Ing. Thomas Röfer
(Workshop Contact Person),
Bremen Institute of Safe Systems,
Dept. for Mathematics and Computer Science,
University of Bremen,
P.O. Box 330 440
28334 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218 7585
Fax: +49 421 218 3054
E-Mail: roefer@tzi.de
 


Dipl.-Inf. Axel Lankenau,
Bremen Institute of Safe Systems,
Dept. for Mathematics and Computer Science,
University of Bremen,
P.O. Box 330 440
28334 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218 4684
Fax: +49 421 218 3054
E-Mail: alone@tzi.de


Dr.-Ing. Reinhard Moratz,
Research Group Knowledge and Language Processing,
Dept. of Informatics,
University of Hamburg,
Vogt-Kölln-Str. 30,
22527 Hamburg
Phone: +49 40 42883 - 2322
Fax: +49 40 42883 - 2385
E-Mail: moratz@informatik.uni-hamburg.de
 
   
Author: Dr. Thomas Röfer 		 
  Cognitive Robotics 
Last updated: September 12, 2002   impressum