Ubiquitous robot: A new paradigm for intelligence

Abstract

This paper presents a systematic review of the recent development in ubiquitous robotics, with a focus on its implication on intelligence. Ubiquitous robot (Ubibot), the third generation robot, is characterized by its unprecedented power to sense environments and provide sophisticated services autonomously. Based on the architectures of existing Ubibot projects, we describe a general framework containing the perception, intelligence and execution modules as well as the middleware layer used to integrate the three modules to make them collaborate seamlessly. Two representative projects are introduced to exemplify the state-of-the-art progress in Ubibot, along with a brief discussion of various underlying communication techniques. In the perspective of intelligence, we point out that Ubibot opens up new horizons for investigating and applying popular AI techniques such as computer vision and pattern recognition, compared to traditional robots. Furthermore, a list of new challenging research topics is identified that deserve full consideration in the future to make Ubibot more robust, effective and adaptive.