Personal robot

Key takeaways

Personal robot belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Personal robot to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Personal robot from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A personal robot is one whose human interface and design make it useful for individuals. This is by contrast to industrial robots which are generally configured and operated by robotics specialists. A personal robot is one that enables an individual to automate the repetitive or menial part of home or work life making them more productive. Similar to the way that the transition from mainframe computers to the personal computers revolutionized personal productivity, the transition from industrial robotics to personal robotics is changing productivity in home and work settings. Turning a robot like ASIMO or Atlas into a universally applicable personal robot or artificial servant is mainly a programming task. Vast improvements in motion planning, computer vision (esp. scene recognition), natural language processing, and automated reasoning are indispensable to make this a possibility.

History iRobot Corp. introduced the Roomba in 2002 The Institute for Personal Robots in Education introduced the concept to teach computing using personal robots in 2006. Stanford University Personal Robotics Program introduced PR1 in 2007. Willow Garage introduced the PR2 robot in 2010. RoboDynamics introduced Luna in 2011. Milagrow HumanTech introduced India's 1st Robotic vacuum cleaner, the RedHawk in 2011 and then the World's 1st Body Massaging Robot in 2012.

Toys

Robotic toys, such as the well known Furby, have been popular since 1998. There are also small humanoid remote controlled robots. Electronic pets, such as robotic dogs, can be good companions. They have also been used by many universities in competitions such as the RoboCup. There are many different kinds of toy robots that have been invented since the late 1900s. There were many robotic toys invented that were used for entertainment. One popular example was called the Furby, a toy that children nourished every day. The toy robot made it seem like it was alive, like a pet that you have to watch and give attention to. There are many different kinds of toy robots that are animal related, such as robotic dogs. Another type of robotic toy is the phone-powered robot. Using this toy, you are able to connect with your phone and control the toy while using an application. Now, robotic toys are becoming more integrated with mobile device platforms. This in turn is creating a larger demand for these types of products. The increase in demand has a direct effect on the advancement of the technology used in the toys.

Social robots

Social robots take on the function of social communication. Domestic humanoid robots are used by elderly and immobilized residents to keep them company. Wakamaru is a domestic humanoid robot developed in Japan. Its function is to act as a care taker. Wakamaru has a number of operations and “can be programmed to remind patients to take their medicine and even call a doctor when it appears that someone is in distress.” Paro, a robotic baby seal, is intended to provide comfort to nursing home patients. Home-telepresence robots can move around in a remote location and let one communicate with people there via its camera, speaker, and microphone. Through other remote-controlled telepresence robots, the user can visit a distant location and explore it as if they were physically present. These robots can, among other applications, permit health-care workers to monitor patients or allow children who are homebound because of injuries, illnesses, or other physical challenges to attend school remotely. Kuri, JIBO and ConnectR are family robots that includes telepresence.

Entertainment services

Network robots link ubiquitous networks with robots, contributing to the creation of new lifestyles and solutions to address a variety of social problems including the aging of population and nursing care.

Therapy Robots built for therapy have been in production for quite some time now. Some of these uses can be for autism or physical therapy. As for robots designed to help autism, authors Daniel J. Ricks and Mark B. Colton suggest that these robots will elicit and bring out specific behaviors of children, ones not previously seen before the use of these robots. This shows the goals set for robots in therapy for children with autism is to help form social behaviors. A large number of children with autism have communication issues, these robots can assist them and help them learn. They can also be used to assist adults with physical issues involving muscles or limbs.

See also Companion robot DARPA Robotics Challenge Domestic robot Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio Open-source hardware Outline of robotics § Robots Robot Operating System Soft robotics URBI

References

External links EZ-Robot Stanford University Personal Robotics Program Cornell University Personal Robotics Program Imperial College London Personal Robotics

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Personal robot

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Personal robot claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Personal robot before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Personal robot ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Personal robot

In research: Personal robot appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Personal robot in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Personal robot is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Robots, Social robots, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Personal robot outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Personal robot in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Personal robot means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Personal robot out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Personal robot in simple terms?

A personal robot is one whose human interface and design make it useful for individuals. This is by contrast to industrial robots which are generally configured and operated by robotics specialists.

Why does Personal robot matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Personal robot?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Personal robot.