Joint Research on Technology for Advanced Service Robot

本年度的工作是我们与美国范德比尔特大学的机器人研究小组在为老年人和残疾人提供日常生活服务的先进自主服务机器人方面为期三年的研究合作的最后一项活动。其目标是通过开发新概念和技术在服务机器人领域取得突破，并向社会展示新的机器人功能。该目标已在实验室一级成功实现。这家日本公司已经开发出一种人形服务机器人HARIS，它由一个类似人类的电子手臂和一个基于知识的软件系统组成。仿人机器人由一个8自由度的多关节手臂组成。和一只18自由度的五指手带有178个触觉传感器的手单元由嵌入式微处理器控制，可自行处理3D物体。基于知识的软件系统包括基于模型的3D视觉、智能任务/运动调度器、自然语言接口和机器人控制器。开发了基于框架的知识工程环境ZERO++来集成这些子系统。美的集团开发了双臂服务机器人ISAC。ISAC机器人由气控双臂、3D视觉、视觉伺服系统、人脸跟踪器、人机界面等组成。开发了基于Agent的平台IMA来集成系统。应该指出的是，日本集团的基于知识的方法和美国集团的基于传感器的方法的结合带来了很高的灵活性。主要产品已通过期刊和会议记录发表。

This work of the year was the final activity of the three year research collaboration on an advanced autonomous service robot to serve aged and disabled persons in daily life between us in Japan and a robotic group at the Vanderbilt university of USA.The goal was to make a breakthrough in the field of a service robot by developing new concepts and technologies, and to demonstrate new robotic functions to the society. The goal has been achieved successfully at a laboratory level. The Japan group has developed ahumanoid service robot HARIS, which consists of an electronic human-like arm and a knowledge-based software system. The human-like robot consists of a multi-joint arm with 8 d.o.f. and a five-finger hand with 18 d.o.f.. The hand unit with 178 tactile sensors is controlled by an embedded micro-processor for handling 3D objects by itself. The knowledge-based software system includes a model-based 3D vision, an intelligent task/motion scheduler, a natural language interface and a robot controller. The frme-based knowledge engineering environment ZERO++ was developed to integrate these subsystems. The US group has developed a dual-arm service robot ISAC.The ISAC robot consists of an air-controlled dual arm, a 3D vision, a visual servoing system, a face tracker, a human interface, and so on. The agent-based platform IMA was developed to integrate the system. It should be noted that the integration of the knowledge-based approach of Japan group and the sensor-based approach of US group has resulted in high flexibility. The main products have been published through journals and conference proceedings.