#care robot

"Care-O-bot® II, built in 2002, was equipped with a manipulator arm, adjustable walking supporters, and a tilting sensor head containing two cameras and a laser scanner for environment perception. The manipulator had specifically been developed for household use and was able to handle typical household objects. The flexible gripper attached to the manipulator was able to grasp different objects such as plates, mugs and bottles. A tablet-PC was used to command and to supervise the robot. In addition to the mobility functions already solved in Care-O-bot® I, the second prototype was able to execute simple manipulation tasks autonomously and could be used as an intelligent walking support."

"The Domestic (Doro) and Condominium (Coro) robots share most of their hardware components and they were designed upon the SCITOS G5 mobile platform (developed by Metralabs). The outdoor robot (Oro) is the DustCart platform, whose first version was produced within the DustBot project. … Implementing a service which operates in different areas implies problems within the 'link' between heterogeneous environments. The solution used in the Robot-Era system is based on the division of workspaces among the different agents involved in the system. Specifically, during the implementation of the shopping delivery and garbage collection services, the main problem occurred while carrying items from an outdoor environment to an indoor one and vice versa. In more detail, the haulage of goods is managed through an exchange phase between Coro and Oro. From a hardware point of view, the exchange is performed through actuated rollers on mobile platforms — the SCITOS G5 platform and the Oro robot — and the mechanism of the mobile cart in Oro is also used to open and close the basket." – Development of a Socially Believable Multi-Robot Solution from Town to Home.

"The first Care-O-bot® prototype was built by Fraunhofer IPA in 1998. It consisted of a mobile platform with a moveable interactive touchscreen which enabled intuitive communication with the human user. Care-O-bot® I was already able to navigate safely and reliably in public environments and could thus execute simple transportation tasks. In addition the robot operated successfully as a trade fair and exhibition guide on several occasions and provided the basis for the development of the three museum robots in Berlin."

DeKonBot (2020) by Fraunhofer IPA, Stuttgart, Germany. Developed to contain the spread of the coronavirus, DeKonBot navigates autonomously to potentially contaminated objects and disinfects them. "The new prototype of the mobile disinfection robot “DeKonBot” is an automation solution that independently cleans and disinfects potentially contaminated areas such as door handles, light switches, or elevator buttons. Compared to cleaning by hand, the use of robots reduces the risk of infection for the cleaning staff and at the same time ensures that the cleaning task is carried out reliably and traceably. The continuous use of the robot, even during the night, means that cleaning jobs can be performed more frequently than if carried out manually." – Fraunhofer IPA presents disinfection robot “DeKonBot.”

Intelligent care cart (2018) by Fraunhofer IPA (Stuttgart), and MLR. Fraunhofer has developed new robot solutions within the "SeRoDi" project (service robotics for person-related services). "The intelligent care cart, developed together with the company MLR, was used in a residential care facility and a clinic in Mannheim and provided laundry and dressing materials. It navigates autonomously, i.e. the nurse can order it to the desired location via smartphone, thus saving long walking distances. The automatic recognition of the removed objects also reduces the effort required for the manual documentation of used care utensils." – SeRoDi – Service robotics for person-related services.

Care-O-Bot 3 (2008) by Fraunhofer IPA, Stuttgart. "Care-O-bot 3 is a service robot for the home, conceived by the Fraunhofer Institute and developed together with its partners. BMS developed an elastic polyurethane skin for the external moving parts, which hardly wrinkles at all when the robot is in motion. “The skin is an intelligent combination of a flexible polyurethane foam and a polyurethane dispersion frothed foam. It is a completely novel, innovative class of material which, above all else, has great potential for use in the future robotics market”, explains Manfred Naujoks, an expert in flexible polyurethane foams." – Wrinkle-free Polyurethane Skin for Service Robots (25-Dec-2008).

S³ Care-O-bot 4 (2018) by Fraunhofer IPA, Stuttgart. The S³ project (Safety Sensor technology for Service robots) equips this buff Care-O-Bot 4 with additional radar, head-mounted cameras, and soft compliant arms, that enable it to adapt to the humans around it. "For this purpose, Care-O-bot® received 4 new arms specifically for collaborative use. They are particularly padded and could stop automatically when touched. A new swivel and tiltable head unit ensures a safe all-round view. The robot was in use for the tests for two weeks, retrieved drink bottles from the residents' rooms several times and brought them to the station kitchen. There the staff filled them up and the robot brought the full bottles back. "The practical tests are extremely valuable to us," explains Florenz Graf, research assistant at Fraunhofer IPA and responsible for the tests. »We learn things here that do not matter under laboratory conditions, but are very important for the actual use.« … The nurses perceived the robot as safe and were not afraid of it. However, they wanted the robot to do its tasks faster." – Fraunhofer IPA, Improved security for service robots.

Care-O-bot 4 (2015) by Fraunhofer IPA, Stuttgart. "Based on its modular system design, the fields of application for Care-O-bot 4 are wide-ranging. The robot can be equipped with one, two or no arms at all. The patented spherical joints on the robot’s neck and hips are optional. If the intended purpose is to serve drinks, one hand can be replaced by a tray, or the mobile base platform can be used on its own as a serving trolley. Individual robot platforms can be configured for a wide range of applications: a mobile information center in museums, DIY stores and airports, for collection and delivery services in homes and offices, for security applications or as museum robots at attractions – Care-O-bot 4 is a safe and handy human helper at all times."