A General Framework for Developing Service Robots

A general framework for developing service robots that can help people in daily activities is presented. This framework is based on a general, distributed architecture which integrates several components; (i) coordinator, (ii) navigator, (iii) perception, and (iv) human-robot interface. The coordinator uses a novel decision-theoretic approach to select the appropriate action according to the current state. The navigator allows the robot to localize itself and navigate in a dynamic environment, using natural landmarks. The perception module combines vision, sonar and lasers so that the robot can detect the relevant objects in the environment, including people. The human-robot interface provides a natural communication with people, using voice, gestures and portable devices. This provides a general and flexible framework for developing house hold robots, so the same infrastructure can be applied to different tasks by just changing the coordinator, reducing development costs.