Home appliance components using RT middleware – development of the interface and an example system

Recently, the development costs for robot software is becoming bigger and bigger. Especially, the robots which works with humans in the home and office environment are expected to have various functions according to its user´s demand. Therefore, RT (Robotics Technology) Middleware developed by AIST offers the methods to develop desired robot system by combining RT Components. However, various kinds of RT Components are obviously necessary. In this paper, we introduce RT Components for home appliances which will achieve seamless integration with robot system. Moreover, in order to control the home appliances and robots easily, we developed ldquoAdvanced Appliance for Robot Interface (ACARI).rdquo Bedtime support system was developed as an example for the components and ACARI. The usefulness of home appliance components and ACARI were experimentally confirmed by an example system.