Universal Design with Robots

In conventional robotic development, a robot is built for a specialized purpose because its hardware is designed for a specific environment, and it is required to execute only a predetermined task. In practice, it is very difficult to develop a robot that can handle all items found in a human living environment. To overcome this difficulty, AIST devised some methods, as part of the environmental platform for the easy adaptation of robots to the human living environment in which humans and robots can coexist. The methods include designing handles that are easily operable by robots and also by human, designing visual marks in order to provide the layouts and operating instructions of the handles, and building templates for the easy development of operation programs for robots. Introduction of robots in households is expected to be accelerated by the popularization of these methods.