66 SERVO 01.2016
at the high cost of adding arms to his
robot, and whether they are necessary
at all.
Tandy has centered his research
on the extreme needs of seniors who
are partially confined and desire social
engagement and communication with
loved ones and the outside world. The
prototypes of his that I’ve watched in
operation are very functional and
provide the best social interaction of
any robot that I’ve seen. Think of
Breazeal’s Jibo atop a mobile
platform, but don’t discount the
possible addition of a small
manipulative arm in the future.
Much attention has been given to
the Aldebaran robots shown in Figure
11 — especially Pepper on the right,
designed in conjunction with SoftBank
Mobile of Japan. The four foot tall, 62
pound robot has 20 motors to control
its many articulations as seen in
Figure 12. The 795 watt-hour battery
can operate the robot for 12 hours. It
3D sensor, a three-axis gyro, and
numerous sonar, laser, and bumper
sensors on its legs. It is touted as a
social robot with the ‘ability to read
emotions,’ and is marketed towards
elder care.
Another French service robotics
company, Robosoft introduced a robot
in 2010 called Kompaï, shown in
Figure 13. It is designed to assist the
elderly. The small robot talks,
understands speech, and can navigate
autonomously. In many ways, it does
the same things that the Echo does,
including keeping track of shopping
lists and playing music. It has been one
of the key robots utilized in elder care
research using robotic technology.
Final Thoughts
I purposely concentrated on
robotic features to assist the elderly
and seniors in their homes, as I want
readers to envision what might be
wanted in the future to assist in
independent living. You might be
facing such a scenario right now or
have a friend, parent, or relative who
might need assistance. Care facilities
are frightfully expensive and very few
people really want to be sent to a
living assistance home unless they
have no other choice. Just as few
elderly folks don’t want to admit they
can no longer safely drive their cars,
they also find it hard to admit that
they need help in their homes.
If they could have a personal
assistant robot that cost no more than
the car sitting in their driveway (that
they no longer can drive, anyway), do
you think they might opt for having
such a device in their home rather
than giving up their independence? It
is a dilemma that most of us will face
at one time or another. SV
Figure 11. Aldebaran’s family of robots:
Nao, Romeo, and Pepper.
Figure 12. SoftBank's multi-functional social robot, Pepper.
Figure 13.
Elder care
robot,
Kompaï from
Robosoft.
Advertiser Index
All Electronics Corp. ............................................... 15
Firgelli ......................................................................... 9
Front Panel Express ................................................. 51
Hitec ..................................................................... 2, 61
Ion Motion Control ................................................. 32
Maxbotix .................................................................. 61
M.E. Labs ................................................................. 55
Mikronauts ............................................................... 49
PanaVise .................................................................. 32
Parallax ..................................................................... 49
Pololu ........................................................Back Cover
PoScope ................................................................... 51
Probotix ...................................................................... 9
SDP/SI ...................................................................... 15
ServoCity ............................................................ 61, 67
SuperBrightLEDs ...................................................... 61
The Robot Marketplace ......................................... 48
Tormach ................................................................... 26
University of Advanced Technology ...................... 3
