2008IEEE/RSJInternationalConferenceonIntelligentRobotsandSystemsAcropolisConventionCenterNice,France,Sept,22-26,2008
DevelopmentofanAndroidSystemIntegratedwithSensorNetworks
TakenobuChikaraishi,TakashiMinatoandHiroshiIshiguro
Abstract—Inordertodeveloparobotthathasahuman-likepresence,therobotmustbegivenaveryhuman-likeappearanceandbehavior,andasenseofperceptionthatenablesittocommunicatewithhumans.Wehavedevelopedanandroidrobotcalled”ReplieeQ2”thatcloselyresemblesahumanbeing;however,thesensorsmountedonitsbodyarenotsufcienttoallowhuman-likecommunicationduetofactorssuchassensingrangeandspatialresolution.Toovercomethisproblem,weendowedtheenvironmentsurroundingtheandroidwithperceptivecapabilitiesbyembeddingavarietyofsensorsintoit.Thissensornetworkprovidestheandroidwithhuman-likeperceptionbyconstantlyandextensivelymonitoringhumanactivitiesinalessobviousmanner.Thispaperreportsonanandroidsystemthatisintegratedwithasensornetworksystemembeddedintheenvironment.Ahuman-androidinteractionexperimentshowsthattheintegratedsystemprovidesrelativelyhuman-likeinteraction.
I.INTRODUCTIONInrecentyears,researchanddevelopmenthasbeenconductedonhumanoidrobots[1],[2]thatarecapableofinteractingwithhumansindailylife,becausemanyrobottasksthatneedahuman-likepresence,namelycommunicationwithhumansindailylife.Arobotequippedwithahumanlikepresenceenablesnaturalhuman-robotcommunication,thatis,ahumancannaturallycommunicatewiththerobotasifhewerecommunicatingwithanotherhuman.Oneoftheapproachestolearningtheprinciplesofgivingahuman-likepresencetoarobotistodeveloparobotthatcansenseandbehavelikeahuman.Developingsucharobotwillrevealtheprincipleofhuman-likeexistence.Inordertodeveloparobotthatcannaturallycommunicatewithhumansthroughcommunicationchannels[3],wehavetosolvethefollowingissues.
Arobothastobeprovidedwithaveryhumanlikeappearanceandmotiontointeractsociallywithhumans[4]DArobothastobeprovidedwithperceptionalfunctionstocommunicatewithhumansthroughhumancommunicationchannels.
However,thedegreetowhichahuman-likenatureisneededandhowmuchperceptionisneededinordertorealizenaturalhuman-robotcommunicationhavenotyetbeenrevealed.Wehavebeenconductingresearchontheseissuestoexplore
T.ChikaraishiiswithGraduateSchoolofEngineering,OsakaUniversity,Osaka,Japan.3710167@qq.com.eng.osaka-u.ac.jpT.MinatoiswithAsadaProject,ERATO,JapanScienceandTechnologyAgency,Osaka,Japan.3710167@qq.com.IshiguroiswithGraduateSchoolofEngineering,OsakaUniversity,Osaka,JapanandATRIntelligentRoboticsandCommunicationLaboratories,Kyoto,Japan.3710167@qq.com.osaka-u.ac.jp
theprinciplesforrealizingnaturalhuman-robotcommunicationusingarobotwithaveryhuman-likeappearance,whichiscalledan“android”[5]DTheandroid’shumanlikeappearancemustbesufcientlyanthropomorphictoelicitanaturalinterpersonalreaction[6].Thusstudiesontheandroid’sahuman-likenatureinappearanceandmotionhavebeenconductedandtheyshowedthatahuman-likepresenceisrealizedins