The 3 rd Generation of Robotics: Ubiquitous Robot.

Abstract

In this paper, ubiquitous robot (Ubibot), a 3rd generation of robotics, is introduced as a robot incorporating three forms of robots: software robot (Sobot), embeded robot (Embot) and mobile robot (Mobot), which can provide us with various services by any device through any network, at any place anytime in a ubiquitous space. Sobot is a virtual robot, which has the ability to move to any place through a network. Embot is embedded within the environment or in the Mobot. Mobot provides integrated mobile services, which are seamless, calm and context-aware. Following its definition, the basic concepts of Ubibot are presented. A Sobot, called Rity, developed at the RIT Lab., KAIST, is introduced to investigate the usability of the proposed concepts. Rity is a 3D synthetic character which exists in the virtual world, has a unique IP address and interacts with human beings through an Embot implemented by a face recognition system using a USB camera. To show the possibility of realization of Ubibot by using the current state of the art technologies, two kinds of successful demonstrations are presented.