네트워크 환경에서 유비쿼터스 로봇의 구현

Abstract

This paper proposes a ubiquitous robot, Ubibot, as an integration of three forms of robots: Software robot (Sobot), Embedded robot (Embot) and Mobile robot (Mobot). A Sobot is a virtual robot, which has the ability to move to any place or connect to any device through a network in order to overcome spatial limitations. It has the capacity to interpret the context and thus interact with the user. An Embot is embedded within the environment or within physical robots. It can recognize the locations of and authenticate the user or robot, and synthesize sensing information. Also it has the ability to deliver essential information to the user or other components of Ubibot by using various types of output devices. A Mobot provides integrated mobile service. In addition, Middleware intervenes different protocols between Sobot, Embot, and Mobot in order to incorporate them reliably. The services provided by Ubibot will be seamless, calm and context-aware based on the combination of these components. This paper presents the basic concepts and structure of Ubibot. A Sobot, called Rity, is introduced in order 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 Vision Embot, Sound Embot, Position Embot and Voice Embot. Rity is capable of moving into a Mobot and controlling its mobility. In doing so, Rity can express its behavior in the virtual world, for example, wondering or moving about in the real world. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of implementing a Ubibot in a networked environment.