A vision for spatial-reasoning commodity robots

This work seeks to augment commodity robots to enable service tasks that require global spatial reasoning, e.g., delivery, surveillance, and map maintenance. In addition. We seek to do this as accessibly and inexpensively as possible. To that end we present a design and three prototype platforms that illustrate educational, service-level, and research applications atop the iRobot Create. The prototypes significantly improve the robotic capabilities broadly available at the $500 price range, particularly for pedagogical applications. This work informs a facet of the design space for next-generation commodity robots. Though the prototypes´ first audience is likely to be educators, we hope they pique the interest of those who design low-cost consumer and service robots, as well.