New Generation Of Home Robots Have Gentle Touch

July 11, 2008 | Source: Science Daily

An advanced household service robot, the “Care-O-bot,” has been developed by scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart.

(Fraunhofer)

(Fraunhofer)

Stereo color cameras, laser scanners and a 3-D range camera enable the robot to register its surroundings in three dimensions in real time. It has a highly flexible arm with seven degrees of freedom and a hand with three fingers, allowing it to pick up bottles, cups and similar objects and operate machines.

It can be taught, for example, what a cup looks like and where to find it in the kitchen. The user simply places the unfamiliar object in the robot’s hand so that it can gain a three-dimensional impression of the item.