Ubiquitous Robot

Abstract

In the near future human beings will be living in a ubiquitous world where all objects such as electronic appliances are networked to each other and robots will provide us with services of every variety by any device through any network, at any place anytime. However, current robots have a number of constraints to become wholly ubiquitous. This research attempts to eliminate the spatial limitations by introducing virtual robots into the physical world. Ubiquitous robot, Ubibot, is introduced to integrate three forms of robots: software robot (Sobot), embeded robot (Embot) and mobile robot (Mobot). Sobot is a virtual robot, which has the ability to move to any place or connect to any device through a network, in order to overcome the spatial limitation. It has the capability to interpret the context and thus interact with the user. Embot is embedded within the environment or in the Mobot. An Embot can recognize the locations of and authenticate the user or robot, and synthesise sensing information. Mobot provides integrated mobile services. The services that will be provided by Ubibot will be seamless, calm and context-aware.

This talk will address the basic concepts of Ubibot. A Sobot, called Rity, will be introduced in order to investigate the usability of the proposed concepts. Rity is a 3D synthetic character which exists in the virtual world, has a unique IP address and interacts with human beings through an Embot implemented by a face recognition system using a USB camera.