Yusuke Yasukawa

Developing a service robot with communication abilities

A service robot designed to be of practical use in offices and commercial environments has been developed. The robot features 4-degree-of-freedom arms, grippers, a pan-tilt mechanism with eight cameras, and three microphones to recognize speech and the direction of a sound source. It moves itself around on wheels. The robot can be operated by, and communicates with, a natural voice that is synthesized using the prosody of a natural voice. The CPU, DSP, vision board, and local processors communicate with each other through an embedded LAN. This paper describes the hardware features, applications, communications, and self-charging capabilities that together realize the practicality of this robot.

Developing a service robot

A service robot designed to be of practical use in offices and commercial environments has been developed. Moving on wheels, with a pair of four-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) arms and grippers, and a pan-tilt mechanism carrying eight cameras, the robot is designed to operate efficiently in public spaces. The robot houses a CPU board, two DSP boards, a vision board, and local processors, which form an internal LAN and communicate with each other. This paper presents the hardware features of the robot, outlines its typical applications and introduces its 3D vision-based navigation system, which is central to the execution of its tasks.