Development of a steward robot for human-friendly interaction

Independence of people in need in their living environment becomes an imperative notion for any society in the years to come. As an approach to achieve independence, this paper addresses the problem of controlling an assistive home environment emphasizing a human-friendly man-machine interaction. We introduce a new service robot, named Joy, which can be categorized as a steward robot. As an intermediate agent between inhabitants and a complex smart house environment, this robot can provide the users with easily accessible, convenient, and cost effective environment for independent living. The learning capability and emotional interaction of the robot can enhance human-friendliness in various tasks. A learning system can provide personalized services by accumulating knowledge of the behavior patterns of the user in daily activities. An emotional interaction system generates facial expressions to be more human-friendly. We have developed two types of steward robots: a software type and hardware type. The hardware-type robot has a mobile platform and two robotic arms to perform various tasks with mobility.