Fraunhofer IPA
Major projects and activities in Biomedical Robotics
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Project Name and Acronym |
MORPHA – Intelligente antropomorphe Assistenzsysteme |
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Duration |
July 1999 – June 2002 |
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Web site |
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Sponsoring promoter |
() EU (X) National entity: bmb+f (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Germany) ( ) Other _____________ |
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Funding programme |
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Keywords |
Rehabilitation Robotics, Mobile Robotics, House Keeping Assistant, Home Care Robot, Intelligent Walking Aid |
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Co-ordinating group |
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Partners (group name, category*) |
Delta DASA DaimlerChrysler Siemens DLR FAW Fraunhofer IPA Uni Bochum Uni Karlsruhe amtec Graphikon Kuka Roboter Propack Data Reis Robotics ZN Zoller + Fröhlich |
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Objectives |
The core idea of the MORPHA project is to equip intelligent mechatronic systems, particularly robot assistants or service robots, with the capability to communicate, interact and collaborate with human users in a natural and intuitive way. The scenario of housekeeping and home care robot assistants focuses on the employment of assistive robot systems in everyday domestic settings. There are different motivating factors for the employment of robots in the home: on the one side, comfort factors and a changing societal framework favour the employment of man-made personnel; on the other side, an increasing number of households include inhabitants that require physical support in day-to-day life due to sickness or age. Robot systems will work directly with people in this area, thus placing a central importance on making interactions between people and machines as natural as possible. |
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Relevant activities |
Work in the field of man-machine communication and its specific channels includes the following themes: · graphical input-output and visualisation of system status and processes · speech input-output, including dialogues for status reports and inquiries · the use of force-reflecting input devices, tactile and force/torque sensors for guiding, demonstrating, correcting, etc. · the fusion of different information channels, including suitable handling of redundancy and of incomplete information · other interfaces for man-machine communication. Scene analysis will be based on known 3D image analysis methods for visual sensors (cameras and laser scanners). These methods will be used to analyse and suitably represent the common work space. They must especially be able to follow all actions of the human partner. Safety aspects play a particularly important role here, both in the general sense of reliably detecting and tracking persons (e.g. for collision avoidance) and in the detection of especially critical situations, such as interaction with humans in the same workspace. Research topics in the areas of motion planning and coordination which will be investigated in MORPHA include: For motion planning with direct physical contact: · design of direct physical interaction and cooperation methods between humans and machines based on vision, range and force/torque sensors; · anthropomorphic grasping and manipulation. For motion planning without direct physical contact: · motion coordination between human and machine (development of context-dependent motion patterns, including behaviours such as approach, avoidance, following); safe locomotion in rapidly changing environments (e.g. among groups of people). For interactive task planning: · interactive behaviour planning with user behaviour feedback task description language for interaction and human-machine cooperation. A suitable safety concept must account for the integrity of the system just as it must account for the integrity of its surroundings. The following research topics are investigated in MORPHA: · telediagnosis, telemaintenance, and teleoptimization · autodiagnosis · error recovery |
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Achieved biomedical robotic prototypes/ products |
Care-O-bot is the prototype of a robotic home care system developed at Fraunhofer IPA. A first mobile platform has been built several years ago. Mechanical Solutions and Modules of
Care-O-botÔ · Two differentially driven wheels in combination with four independent supporting wheels, · Symmetrical circular form of main body resulting in minimal collision dangers, · Highly integrated mechanical body structure with a maximum diameter of 0.6 m, · CAD-optimised body frame construction realised in alloy · Centre of gravity at lowest possible level due to lowest possible integration of heavy components – like batteries, drives etc., · Mechanical layout, cover and user interfaces developed by professional designers, · Limitation of the torque from the main drives, integration of a position detecting and force sensitive bumper, emergency stop buttons and programming of safety fields in the certified laser scanner, · Integration of a flexible and ergonomic walking aid with an easy to learn manoeuvring interface. Software Architecture The control software for the mobile robots is based on the object oriented ‘Realtime Framework’ and the software library ‘Robotics Toolbox’. This software package, developed at Fraunhofer IPA, facilitates the integration of reusable software components in application specific control systems with the support of a framework and specific design patterns. The software components of the ‘Robotics Toolbox’ are reusable functional units. Each unit either encapsulates algorithms, controls sensors or drives actuators. Following this strategy software can be developed by analogy to electronic circuit development, where application specific circuit layouts are printed on boards which are then equipped with prefabricated electronic components. Care-O-bot has already proved its ability to operate safely and reliably in public environments. Three robots based on the same hardware platform have recently been installed for constant operation in the “Museum für Kommunikation Berlin” where they autonomously move among the visitors, communicate to and interact with them. |
Summary of products, systems, prototypes
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Name |
Short description |
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Care-O-bot |
Mobile home care system including manipulator arm and walking aid
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Related publications
· Schraft, R.D.; Schaeffer,C.; May,T.: "The Concept of a System for Assisting Elderly or Disabled Persons in Home Environments", Proceedings of the 24th IEEE IECON, Vol. 4 Aachen (Germany), 1998.
· Schaeffer, C.; May, T.: "Care-O-bot: A System for Assisting Elderly or Disabled Persons in Home Environments". In Proceedings of AAATE-99, Düsseldorf, 1999.
· Traub, A.; Schraft, R.D.: “An Object-Oriented Realtime Framework for Distributed Control Systems”; in Proceedings of ICRA-99, pp. 3115-3121, 1999.
· Graf, B.; Schraft, R.D.; Neugebauer, J.: “A Mobile Robot Platform for Assistance and Entertainment”, Proceedings of ISR-2000, Montreal.
· Schraft, R.D.; Graf, B.; Traub, A.; John, D.; „ A Mobile Robot Platform for Assistance and Entertainment”. In Industrial Robot Journal, Vol. 28, 2001, pp. 83-94.