The Cognitive Service Robotics Apartment as an Ambient Host

Having cognitive interaction technology available around-the-clock, 24-7, to support our daily routines without the use of special interaction devices or control interfaces is an essential factor that will determine the success of future assistive living concepts. Social robotics has been a well-established, active research field for more than a decade and has contributed, but the vision of using cognitive interaction technology on a daily basis in home environments remains far from reality. We argue that this is due to complex technologies of ambient intelligence and robotics, which need to be adapted to users’ needs with the help of a strongly interdisciplinary process that will help seamlessly integrate the technologies into the users’ daily lives. With the CSRA, we develop a complex supportive environment by combining an ambient intelligent apartment with a cognitive social robot whose advanced manipulation capabilities enable it to distinguish between distinct social situations requiring different socially aware behavior. This allows for helpful and unobtrusive 24/7 operation. Furthermore, this approach will yield a new level of interactive capabilities, which will open up new lines of inquiry and research questions pertaining to the social and technical aspects of long-term human-technology interactions.

Please also refer to the fact sheet for a more general overview of the project.