Humanoid Service Robots

Based on four empirical studies, Moritz Merkle examines the introduction of humanoid robots to the frontline service encounter in a customer-centric approach focusing on customer expectations and customer responses. The author identifies desirable robotic behavioral cues and shows that service robots meet great acceptance among customers. After service failures, customers are even more likely to forgive service robots than human employees. Further, he shows how crucial it is to manage customer expectations that depend on cultural dimensions and internal reference categories.

This book provides state of the art scientific and engineering research findings and developments in the field of humanoid robotics and its applications. It is expected that humanoids will change the way we interact with machines, and will have the ability to blend perfectly into an environment already designed for humans. The book contains chapters that aim to discover the future abilities of humanoid robots by presenting a variety of integrated research in various scientific and engineering fields, such as locomotion, perception, adaptive behavior, human-robot interaction, neuroscience and machine learning. The book is designed to be accessible and practical, with an emphasis on useful information to those working in the fields of robotics, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, computational methods and other fields of science directly or indirectly related to the development and usage of future humanoid robots. The editor of the book has extensive R

Based on four empirical studies, Moritz Merkle examines the introduction of humanoid robots to the frontline service encounter in a customer-centric approach focusing on customer expectations and customer responses. The author identifies desirable robotic behavioral cues and shows that service robots meet great acceptance among customers. After service failures, customers are even more likely to forgive service robots than human employees. Further, he shows how crucial it is to manage customer expectations that depend on cultural dimensions and internal reference categories.

Humanoid robots are highly sophisticated machines equipped with human-like sensory and motor capabilities. Today we are on the verge of a new era of rapid transformations in both science and engineering—one that brings together technological advancements in a way that will accelerate both neuroscience and robotics. Humanoid Robotics and Neuroscience: Science, Engineering and Society presents the contributions of prominent scientists who explore key aspects of the further potential of these systems. Topics include: Neuroscientific research findings on dexterous robotic hand control Humanoid vision and how understanding the structure of the human eye can lead to improvements in artificial vision Humanoid locomotion, motor control, and the learning of motor skills Cognitive elements of humanoid robots, including the neuroscientific aspects of imitation and development The impact of robots on society and the potential for developing new systems and devices to benefit humans The use of humanoid robotics can help us develop a greater scientific understanding of humans, leading to the design of better engineered systems and machines for society. This book assembles the work of scientists on the cutting edge of robotic research who demonstrate the vast possibilities in this field of research.

The truth about robots: two experts look beyond the hype, offering a lively and accessible guide to what robots can (and can't) do. There’s a lot of hype about robots; some of it is scary and some of it utopian. In this accessible book, two robotics experts reveal the truth about what robots can and can’t do, how they work, and what we can reasonably expect their future capabilities to be. It will not only make you think differently about the capabilities of robots; it will make you think differently about the capabilities of humans. Ruth Aylett and Patricia Vargas discuss the history of our fascination with robots—from chatbots and prosthetics to autonomous cars and robot swarms. They show us the ways in which robots outperform humans and the ways they fall woefully short of our superior talents. They explain how robots see, feel, hear, think, and learn; describe how robots can cooperate; and consider robots as pets, butlers, and companions. Finally, they look at robots that raise ethical and social issues: killer robots, sexbots, and robots that might be gunning for your job. Living with Robots equips readers to look at robots concretely—as human-made artifacts rather than placeholders for our anxieties. Find out: •Why robots can swim and fly but find it difficult to walk •Which robot features are inspired by animals and insects •Why we develop feelings for robots •Which human abilities are hard for robots to emulate

This book presents the results of an assessment of the state of robotics in Japan, South Korea, Western Europe and Australia and a comparison of robotics R&D programs in these countries with those in the United States. The comparisons include areas like robotic vehicles, space robotics, service robots, humanoid robots, networked robots, and robots for biological and medical applications, and based on criteria such as quality, scope, funding and commercialization. This important study identifies a number of areas where the traditional lead of the United States is being overtaken by developments in other countries.

th This volume is an edition of the papers selected from the 13 International Conference on Advanced Robotics, ICAR 2007, held in Jeju, Korea, August 22-25, 2007, with the theme: “Viable Robotics Service to Human. ” It is intended to deliver readers the most recent technical progress in robotics, in particular, toward the advancement of robotic service to human. To ensure its quality, this volume took only 28 papers out of the 214 papers accepted for publication for ICAR 2007. The selection was based mainly on the technical merit, but also took into consideration whether the subject represents a theme of current interest. For the final inclusion, authors of the selected papers were requested for another round of revision and expansion. In this volume, we organize the 28 contributions into three chapters. Chapter 1 covers Novel Mechanisms, Chapter 2 deals with perception guided navigation and manipulation, and Chapter 3 addresses human-robot interaction and intelligence. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 consist of 7, 13 and 8 contributions, respectively. For the sake of clarity, Chapter 2 is divided further into two parts with Part 1 for Perception Guided Navigation and Part 2 for Perception Guided Manipulation. Chapter 3 is also divided into two parts with Part 1 for Human- Robot Interaction and Part 2 for Intelligence. For the convenience of readers, a ch- ter summary is introduced as an overview in the beginning of each chapter. The chapter summaries were prepared by Dr. Munsang Kim for Chapter 1, Prof.

Introducing mobile humanoid robots into human environments requires the systems to physically interact and execute multiple concurrent tasks. The monograph at hand presents a whole-body torque controller for dexterous and safe robotic manipulation. This control approach enables a mobile humanoid robot to simultaneously meet several control objectives with different pre-defined levels of priority, while providing the skills for compliant physical contacts with humans and the environment. After a general introduction into the topic of whole-body control, several essential reactive tasks are developed to extend the repertoire of robotic control objectives. Additionally, the classical Cartesian impedance is extended to the case of mobile robots. All of these tasks are then combined and integrated into an overall, priority-based control law. Besides the experimental validation of the approach, the formal proof of asymptotic stability for this hierarchical controller is presented. By interconnecting the whole-body controller with an artificial intelligence, the immense potential of the integrated approach for complex real-world applications is shown. Several typical household chores, such as autonomously wiping a window or sweeping the floor with a broom, are successfully performed on the mobile humanoid robot Rollin’ Justin of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The results suggest the presented controller for a large variety of fields of application such as service robotics, human-robot cooperation in industry, telepresence in medical applications, space robotics scenarios, and the operation of mobile robots in dangerous and hazardous environments.