A robot-environment cooperation architecture for the safety of elderly people at home

Abstract

The communicating objects of ambient environment can play a "facilitator" role in helping the assistive robot for locating itself, searching for a person... Conversely, the robot can be seen as a communicating object which is used by services to the person in loss of autonomy. We describe an architecture for cooperation between the robot and the ambient environment composed of sensors or actuators. One of the difficulties is that the robot is evolving in a crowded and not predictable physical environment. It is therefore necessary to have mechanisms of adaptation for answering to various or unforeseen situations so that the robot can move reliably in the home. It is necessary also to take into account two constraints, at first the degree of urgency of the service and secondly the degree of discomfort caused by the presence of a robot which is able to act near the person and see the person in her/his privacy. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.