Collaborative Robots provide many possibilities, when it comes to Human-Robot Collaboration. Until now, these approaches are usually custom made, sensor-integrated solutions, where the robot's safety controller ensures the safety of the human worker. These solutions are according to today's rules and standards. We propose to extend these solutions with including Virtual Realty as a sensor and to provide comfort features to the operator. In order to create cooperation between human and industrial robot in our experiments, we propose to have a simple nut screwing operation as an example, where the industrial robot does the hard part. With sharing the task in such manner, we will ensure that the robot is doing the hard and monotonous work, while the worker benefits from the task sharing. Results are demonstrated through simulation and in reality also.

The population in the world is getting older and the need for the new technical solutions supporting independent life of elderly people is increasing. The needs and expectations of the senior people are the most important factors that define the acceptance of such solutions. In the current paper, we study qualitatively with few older adults how a service robot with a multimodal control interface can support people in this phase of life. The results reveal that multimodality of the control interface and functionalities involving safety and entertainment are very important for end-user acceptance. The user acceptance increases if the available functionalities can be customized for different users and if the commands for both screen-based and voice-based control use the same words and phrases. This approach also allows to decrease the memory load on the user. The possibility to customize the interfaces could open broad possibilities to use the robot also by the disabled people.

We propose a novel search technique called IteMinder that helps users find property in a room using passive RFID and an autonomous robot. First, we attach RFID tags to the target items and at typical locations in a room. We also attach an RFID reader and a laser rangefinder to the robot. The robot can move around the entire room automatically while avoiding obstacles using the laser rangefinder. When the robot finds a tagged item, it uploads the tag ID and location information to the database. Users can then browse target items and their locations on a common web browser.

Implementing a control system for an autonomous machine is a challenging task. Several techniques have to be applied, such as task planning, hierarchical and/or distributed control, and advanced sensing techniques. In addition, to be useful these various techniques have to be integrated into a system that has to operate more or less in real-time. The authors present a control scheme based on hierarchically organized planning-executing-monitoring-cycles which is used to solve some of the problems related to real-time control of an autonomous machine. The implementation is also presented in which the control system is applied in a pilot system based on an industrial robot.>