A User-Interface Robot for Ambient Intelligent Environments

This paper reports on the development of a domestic user-interface robot that is able to have natural human interaction by speech and emotional feedback. Natural interaction with the user is achieved by means of a mechanical head able to express emotions. Additionally, our robot is aware not only of its position in the environment but also of the position and intentions of the users. The localization of the robot is achieved with an appearance-based localization method. To get information about the users, the robot is designed to operate in (and to cooperate with) an intelligent ambient that takes care of monitoring the users. The result is a service robot that departs from existing developments in the fields of interface and service robots that are mainly reactive and, thus, limited in functionality.