We describe the general concept, system architecture, hardware, and the behavioral abilities of Cora (Cooperative Robot Assistant, see Fig. 1), an autonomous non mobile robot assistant. Outgoing from our basic assumption that the behavior to perform determines the internal and external structure of the behaving system, we have designed Cora anthropomorphic to allow for humanlike behavioral stra...

Robot systems, which are employed outside traditional manufacturing applications, socalled service robots or robot assistants, have by far not reached the economic potential of industrial robots yet. There are several factors, which explain this circumstance. Operating robots in unmodified natural environments inhabited by human beings imposes requirements on the robots, which are incomparably ...

Legged anthropomorphic robots are a prime example of complex, highly nonlinear control systems. For example, the dynamics of the DLR C-Runner (Compliant Runner), a legged robot designed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) [1], is described by a nonlinear, high-dimensional hybrid system, see Fig. 1. The different hybrid domains, defined by whether the feet of the robot are in contact with the g...

In the last decade a number of devices for robotic manipulation in the space environment has been proposed and even tested in space [1]-[3]. Nevertheless, these devices were equipped with simple (1-3 dof) grippers while the goal, currently pursued, is to completely substitute astronauts in the execution of hazardous or time consuming tasks. Therefore, more dexterous end-effectors have been prop...

The late Prof. Ichiro Kato and his colleagues started the WABOT (WAseda roBOT) Project in 1970. The WABOT Project promotes research activities which aim to construct a new relationship between humans and robots. Such a robot is called "personal robot". It is expected that personal robots will provide assistance in housework for aged people and for entertainment to keep up the amenity of life an...

For service robots developed to assist nurses in routine patient services (e.g., medicine delivery), patient emotional experiences with the robot may be as important as robot task performance in terms of assessments of effectiveness and acceptance. The objective of this study was to understand the effect of different features of service robots on elderly people’s perceptions and emotional respo...

The Lucs Haptic Hand III has been built as a step in a project at LUCS aiming at studying haptic perception. In this project, several robot hands together with cognitive computational models of the corresponding human neurophysiologic systems will be built. Grasping tests with the LUCS Haptic Hand III were done with six different objects in order to get a comprehension of the signal patterns fr...