What Is a Service Robot?

The service robot is a young member of the robot family, and there is no strict definition so far. Different countries have different perceptions of service robots.

Service robot

The service robot is a young member of the robot family, and there is no strict definition so far. Different countries have different perceptions of service robots.

It can be divided into professional field service robots and personal / home service robots. Service robots have a wide range of applications and are mainly engaged in maintenance, repair, transportation, cleaning, security, rescue, and monitoring.

Chinese name

Service robot

Classification

Areas of expertise, personal / family services

Definition

Not strictly defined

jobs

Maintenance, repair, transportation, etc.

Data show that at least 48 countries in the world are developing robots, of which 25 countries have been involved in the development of service robots. In Japan, North America and Europe, so far more than 40 service robots of 7 types have entered experimental and semi-commercial applications.

In recent years, the global service robot market has maintained a rapid growth rate. According to data from the International Robotics Federation, global sales of service robots in the professional field reached 13,741 units in 2010, a year-on-year increase of 4%, and sales were US $ 32 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15%; Sales of personal / home service robots were 2.2 million units, a year-on-year increase of 35%, and sales were $ 538 million, a 39% year-on-year increase.

On the other hand, the aging of the global population has brought about a large number of problems, such as the care of the elderly and medical problems. The solution of these problems has brought a lot of financial burden. Due to the characteristics of the service robot, it can significantly reduce the financial burden. Therefore, service robots can be used in a large number of applications.

Compared with Japan, the United States and other countries, China's R & D in the field of service robots started late. With the support of the National 863 Program, China has carried out a lot of work in the field of service robot research and product development, and has achieved certain results, such as guide robots and welcome machines developed by Harbin Institute of Technology.

The service robot has a wide range of applications, mainly engaged in maintenance, repair, transportation, cleaning, security, rescue, and monitoring. After several years of collation, the International Robot Federation gave a preliminary definition to service robots: Service robots are semi-autonomous or fully autonomous robots that can complete services that are beneficial to human health, but do not include production. device of. Here, we include other robots that are close to people's lives.

Except for mowing robots, by the end of 1999, the service robots equipped in the world were almost all robots for the industry. The main application areas of these specialized robots are: medical robots, multi-purpose mobile robot platforms, underwater robots and cleaning robots.

At the end of 1999, there were at least 6,600 service robots in the world, of which 3,000 were domestic robots, accounting for about 50%, underwater robots and medical robots accounted for 14% and 12%, cleaning robots accounted for 6%, and all other robots accounted for 23%. .

The total number of service robots is expected to increase to 49,400 from 2000 to 2003, of which 40,000 are home robots (except for vacuum cleaners) and 5,000 are medical robots. Household vacuum cleaning robots will enter the market at the end of 2000. If the price is reasonable, the sales volume in 2003 may reach more than 250,000 units.

The total sales volume of home robots is expected to exceed 300,000 units, which indicates that the service robot market is about to enter a new stage.

Judging from the demand and the current technical level of the equipment, the robots for the disabled have not yet reached the expected goals. In the next 10 years, disabled robots will definitely become a key area for service robots. Many important research institutions are focusing their efforts on developing such robots.

In terms of service robots in general, one of the main difficulties in popularization is price; the other is that users do not know much about the benefits, efficiency, and reliability of robots.

Service robot nurse assistant

Seeing that there are so many different robots in the world now, you may ask who invented the first real robot in the world? It was Mr. Engelberg who invented the first robot.

Engelberg is one of the world's most famous robotics experts. He founded Unimation in 1958 and developed the world's first industrial robot in 1959. He made an outstanding contribution to the creation of the robot industry. In 1983, just as industrial robot sales were getting hotter, Engelberg and his colleagues resolutely sold Unimation to Westinghouse and founded TRC to start developing service robots.

Engelberg believes that service robots are closely related to people's lives, and the application of service robots will continue to improve people's quality of life, which is exactly what people are pursuing. Once service robots are accepted by people like other electromechanical products and enter millions of households, their market will be unlimited.

The first TRC service robot product created by Engelberg was a "nurse assistant" robot for hospitals. It was developed in 1985 and sold in 1990. It has been put into use in dozens of hospitals around the world. In addition to the "nurse assistant", it is also rented. Due to the promising market prospects of the "Nurse Assistant", the "Nurse Assistant" robot company has been established, with Engelberg as chairman.

"Nurse assistant" is an autonomous robot. It does not need wired guidance or planning in advance. Once the program is programmed, it can complete the following tasks at any time: transport medical equipment and equipment, deliver meals to patients, send medical records, Statements and letters, delivery of medicines, delivery of test samples and test results, delivery of mail and parcels within the hospital.

The robot consists of a walking part, a travel controller and a large number of sensors. The robot can move freely in the hospital, and its speed is about 0.7 meters / second. The robot is equipped with a map of the hospital's buildings. After the destination is determined, the robot autonomously navigates along the corridor using the route push algorithm. The structured light vision sensor and the all-around ultrasonic sensor can detect stationary or moving objects and modify the route. Its omnidirectional tactile sensor ensures that the robot will not collide with people and objects. The encoder on the wheel measures the distance it has traveled. In the corridor, the robot uses the corner of the wall to determine its own position, and in larger spaces such as the ward, it can use the reflective band on the ceiling to help locate by using upward-looking sensors. It can also open doors when needed. In multi-story buildings, it can call a passenger elevator and enter the elevator to the desired floor. In an emergency, such as when a surgeon and his patient use an elevator, the robot can stop and let the road open, and it will restart after 2 minutes to continue. You can select multiple destinations through the menu on the "Nurse Assistant". The robot has a large fluorescent screen and a user-friendly audio device, which is fast and convenient for users to use.

Service robot brain surgery robot

In the early spring of 2000, a student from a university in Heilongjiang was lying peacefully on the operating table of the PLA General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army. She had craniopharyngioma. She had a craniotomy 4 years ago. Unfortunately, the tumor has relapsed. The tumor compresses the optic nerve and reduces the vision in her eyes. The vision in the left eye is 0.02, and the light in the right eye is only light. At this moment, doctors are using her advanced brain surgery robot system to perform surgical positioning for her. I saw that there were 4 landmark points on her head. From these 4 landmark points, a spatial coordinate system was established. The CT machine scanned her at different angles. After that, the doctor entered 9 CT pictures into the computer and displayed them on the screen. A three-dimensional lesion site appears. The doctor determines the puncture point and puncture trajectory of the operation on the screen. The 5 degree-of-freedom robot aligns the puncture point and then locks this position by itself to build a stable operating platform for the doctor. Corresponding surgery. The entire operation was 20 minutes. After the operation, the patient got out of bed, wore shoes, and walked out of the operating room. Three days later, the patient was discharged, and both eyesight recovered to 0.9.

Brain surgery robot assist system

The brain surgery robot assist system was jointly developed by Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Tsinghua University and Naval General Academy. The robot was used to perform the first craniotomy for patients in May 1997, and by November 2000 it had been performed on more than 140 patients. In November 2000, the "Sino-U.S. Medical robot clinical application academic exchange meeting" was held in Beijing. On the morning of the 15th, the American cardiac surgical robot and the Chinese brain surgical robot respectively performed clinical operations. Sterilized, made three small holes in the chest, and reached into the chest with a robotic hand. In the operating room on the fourth floor, a robot from the United States began a coronary artery bypass surgery on a 59-year-old patient. This robotic arm, called Aesop, extends into the chest cavity and follows the doctor's instructions "up, down, left, right" to move within the range of 0.2 to 1 cm to find the internal mammary artery for bypass. Mr. Zhang, vice president of the American Robotic Arm Development Company, said that it takes 45 minutes to take the internal mammary artery in traditional surgery, and it can be completed in about 15 minutes with a robotic arm. If this surgical method is not adopted, the patient will leave a 20 cm long incision. Thanks to the endoscope on the robot arm, the doctor's field of vision is clearer and can be directly operated on the surgical image. This time on the patient's chest The incision is only 5 cm. In the operating room on the second floor, a Chinese robot is performing a "biopsy" of the brain of 61-year-old Ms. Wang. Dr. Zhao, the chief surgeon, said that in deep brain surgery like Ms. Wang, before, four nails had to be pierced to the skull, wearing a large metal frame, and performing CT and MRI scans everywhere. With the help of a robotic arm, the patient can throw away the large frame, locate it with the help of a robotic arm, and provide a surgical platform for doctors. The doctor can determine the focal point for the operation through the computer screen next to the operating table. The operation that took at least half a day to complete is now completed in 30 minutes. The operation started at 9 o'clock. Before 10 o'clock, Ms. Wang easily walked off the operating table. "My brain is much looser," Ms. Wang said with a smile. Professor Tian Zengmin, one of the developers of assisted surgical robots, said that the current development trend of neurosurgery is the pursuit of safety, minimally invasive and accurate. The use of robotic systems meets these requirements, and In micro-trauma, it has achieved incomparable good results with traditional treatment methods. Before the use of robot systems, framed stereotactic surgery was commonly used at home and abroad, that is, 4 small holes were drilled in the skull of a patient, and then a metal frame was fixed. The doctor uses this frame (that is, a coordinate system) to determine the specific location of the lesion and determine the location of the operation. Adopting a robot system not only eliminates the pain caused by the fixed frame to the patient and the inconvenience to the doctor, but also improves the positioning accuracy and operation visibility, and minimizes the surgical trauma for the patient.

Robots are increasingly used in medical applications, such as replacing hip bones with robots and performing chest surgery with robots. This is mainly due to the high precision and minimal trauma of robotic surgery, which greatly reduces the pain of patients. From the development trend of robots in the world, robot-assisted surgery will become an inevitable trend.

Service robot dental restoration robot

Tooth is the protector of human health, and having a strong and intact tooth is the guarantee of physical health. However, as people age, teeth will loosen and fall off. At present, most developed countries in the world have entered an aging society, and many elderly people have lost their teeth. Patients with full tooth loss, called edentulous jaws, need to be repaired with full dentures. There are currently nearly 12 million edentulous patients in China. Artificial dentition is the key to restoring the chewing, speech function and facial beauty of patients with edentulous jaws. It is also the core and difficulty of making full dentures. Traditional full dentures are made by doctors and technicians by hand based on the patient's jaw shape, and cannot be made to meet the growing social needs. Peking University Stomatological Hospital, Beijing Institute of Technology and other units have jointly developed dental restoration robots.

Dental restoration robot

This is an application test system designed by computer and robot to assist in the manufacture of full denture artificial dentition. The system uses image and graphics technology to obtain computer models of oral hard and hard tissues of edentulous patients, and uses a non-contact three-dimensional laser scanning measurement system to obtain geometric parameters of edentulous jaw morphology of patients. Expert system software Complete computer-aided statistics of full denture artificial dentition. In addition, an adjustable tooth arrangement device, a transition device between a single plastic artificial tooth and the artificial dentition to be completed, was invented and manufactured.

Based on the robot, you can achieve arbitrary position and attitude control of teeth arrangement. The use of dental restoration robots is equivalent to rapidly cultivating and creating a group of senior dental restoration medical experts and technicians. The use of robots instead of manual tooth arrangement can not only operate digitally more accurately than dental medical experts, but also avoid mistakes caused by experts due to fatigue, emotions, and negligence. This will enable the design and production of full dentures to meet the individual physiological functions and aesthetic requirements of patients without dental jaw, and to reach the level of standardization, standardization, automation and industrialization, thereby greatly improving its production efficiency and quality.

Service robot enters vascular robot

At a press conference in Los Angeles, the participants saw a set of shots on a projection screen: subtitles:

One day in 2005, a small robot assembled from gears with a diameter of only 30 microns was implanted into a blood vessel. This little robot swims freely in the bloody river like a submarine. Once they encounter cholesterol or fat that has accumulated or floated in blood vessels, they pounce on it relentlessly, quickly tearing it apart and chewing. When meeting vicious viruses, they stepped forward without fear.

However, the virus is very cunning. They see the other party as fierce, and often pretend to be a poor, shrinking, seemingly surrendered person; or they lie down all at once, and seem to be a zombie. The robots were kind, and they strode past these enemies who had already dropped their weapons.

However, the favored virus did not stop there. After the robot passed by, they jumped up and began to attack the robot fiercely from behind, and the robot kept falling.

Don't worry, these robots have error correction programs inside. Many of these robots can automatically adjust their behavior as long as it is not a glorious sacrifice. As a result, robots are no longer honest. After seeing the virus, no matter how they pretend, they must kill it without leaving a piece of armor.

The virus also responds to the situation. When they meet the robot, they swell their bodies desperately, bluffing, and trying to put on a fierce look. However, the robot with a "super brave" program is hidden in the brain. It fights bravely, treats death as home, and is determined to defend the master's health with his own life. So the robot fought fiercely with the virus. In the end, the virus was annihilated. The pieces of the virus continue to infiltrate the blood vessels, flow into the kidneys, and are eliminated from the body through urine. As a result, the arteries are unobstructed and the human body is healthier.

The above-mentioned plot about ultra-microtechnology was fabricated based on the scientists' assumptions, but this is not an unattainable dream. With the development of micro-electro-mechanical technology, fantasy is moving towards reality step by step.

On May 27, 1988, two Chinese Americans from the University of California developed a micromotor with a size of 76 microns (3 inches).

In November 1991, under the most advanced "electron tunnel scanning microscope" at that time, the researchers of Japan Electronics Company used "ultra-fine needle tips" to arrange silicon atoms into pyramid-shaped "concave pyramids", which had only 36 atoms. At that height, this is the first time that humans have arranged atoms by hand, causing a sensation in the world of atomic physics.

In July 1996, Harvard University developed a turbine with a diameter of only 7 microns. Thousands of such turbines can be placed on a single stamp. Its shape and structure can only be seen clearly under an ultra-high magnification microscope. China has also developed a 1mm motor.

Supermicro technology is not yet closely related to the people, mainly because they are not yet practical. In response, Dr. Benjamin King, a modern ultramicrophysics expert at Stanford University in the United States, described this: "In the future, people will develop highly intelligent artificial flea, spider and other animals. They integrate ultra-microcomputers, drives, and transmissions. , Sensors, and power supply are equal to one another, and they have become very unique and powerful assistants for human beings. They will be widely used in medical, agricultural, industrial, aerospace, military and other fields. In addition to people's enthusiastic injection of blood vessels to clear poison, In surgery, micromotors can also be used to sew nerves, microvessels, eyeballs, etc .; it can also be used to deepen human internal organs, such as kidneys, hearts, etc. for inspection. Move thousands of "flea" robots into farmland to eliminate pests and make agriculture The bumper harvest also prevents environmental pollution caused by the use of pesticides ... "

Service robot smart wheelchair

With the development of society and the improvement of human civilization, people, especially the disabled, increasingly need to use modern high-tech to improve their quality of life and freedom of life. Thousands of people lose one or more abilities (such as walking, hands-on ability, etc.) every year because of various traffic accidents, natural disasters, and various diseases. Therefore, research on robotic wheelchairs to help disabled people to walk has gradually become a hot spot, such as Spain, Italy and other countries. The Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has also successfully developed a navigation function with vision and password and voice interaction with people. Robot wheelchair.

Smart wheelchair

Robotic wheelchairs mainly have functions such as password recognition and speech synthesis, robot self-positioning, dynamic random obstacle avoidance, multi-sensor information fusion, and real-time adaptive navigation control.

The key technology of the robotic wheelchair is the problem of safe navigation. The basic method adopted is to rely on ultrasonic and infrared ranging. Individual password control is also used. The main disadvantage of ultrasonic and infrared navigation is that the controllable measurement range is limited, and visual navigation can overcome this deficiency. In robotic wheelchairs, the user of the wheelchair should be the central and active part of the entire system. For users, robotic wheelchairs should have the ability to interact with people. This interactive function can be realized intuitively through human-machine voice dialogue. Although some existing mobile wheelchairs can be controlled with simple passwords, mobile robots and wheelchairs with real interactive functions are still rare.

Service robot climbing rope robot

Cable-stayed bridges are becoming more and more popular with bridge designers for their beautiful appearance and good earthquake resistance. Since the completion of the Zaomsund cable-stayed bridge in Sweden in 1956, there have been more than 300 cable-stayed bridges worldwide in 1993. Since the first cable-stayed bridge was built in Yunyang, Sichuan, China in 1975, more than 40 cable-stayed bridges have been built.

The main force-bearing component of a cable-stayed bridge is a cable, but it is exposed to the atmosphere for a long time and is eroded by wind, sun, rain and environmental pollution. Pull bridges have adverse effects. Therefore, effective maintenance of cables is necessary. The cable-stayed bridge attracts many tourists with its unique configuration, adding a beautiful landscape to the modern city. However, while people marveled at the beauty of cable-stayed bridges, they also found that the shortcomings of most cable-stayed bridges are black, and the monotony of color has affected the charm of cable-stayed bridges. Therefore, in recent years, Caihua cable-stayed bridges have become the goal pursued by many bridge experts.

At present, there are three methods for colorizing cable-stayed bridges, namely color wrapping, full-material coloring, and color painting. Among them, color painting is the most economical and flexible method. So far, there are mainly two methods for color coating cable stayed bridges at home and abroad, one is to use a hydraulic lifting platform for small cable stayed bridges, and the other is to use pre-installed tower tops. At a fixed point, the wire basket is used to carry workers to paint along the cable. The former method has a very limited scope of work. The latter method is a common method adopted by many cable-stayed bridges, but manual methods for high-altitude coating operations are not only inefficient, costly, and dangerous, especially in windy weather. Even more dangerous. To this end, the Shanghai Jiaotong University Robot Research Institute cooperated with the Shanghai Huangpu River Bridge Engineering Construction Office in 1997 to develop a prototype cable-stayed bridge cable maintenance robot.

The robot system consists of two parts, one is the robot body and the other is the robot cart. The robot body can climb along cables of various inclination, and automatically perform inspection, grinding, cleaning, destaticization, primer and surface coating and a series of maintenance tasks on the aerial cables. The robot body is equipped with a CCD camera, which can monitor the working situation at any time. The other part of the ground cart is used to install the robot body and supply water and paint to the robot body, while monitoring the robot's aerial work.

The robot has the following functions:

Cable climbing function

The robot can climb along cables of arbitrary inclination. The climbable cable has an elevation of 160 meters, the cable inclination is 0 to 90 (, the applicable cable diameter is 90 to 200 mm, and the robot's climbing speed is 8 m / s.

Cable detection function

The robot is equipped with a wire rope detection system, which can detect whether the wire is broken along the cable, so that the cable can be replaced in time.

Cable cleaning function

The robot body is equipped with various shapes of cleaning brushes and specific water-based cleaning liquids, which can complete the work of removing dust, degreasing, and removing static electricity from polyethylene surfaces on cables.

Have some intelligence

The robot has a good human-computer interaction function. At high altitudes, it can judge whether it is at the top or the wind, and some environmental conditions, and perform corresponding actions.

Service robot outdoor cleaning robot

With the modernization of the city, tall buildings have risen. In order to be beautiful and to get better lighting effects, many office buildings and hotels use glass curtain walls, which brings the problem of cleaning glass windows. In fact, not only glass windows, but also other materials' wall surfaces need to be cleaned regularly.

Window cleaning robot

For a long time, the exterior walls of high-rise buildings have been cleaned with a bucket of water, a rope, and a board. A wall washer tied a rope around his waist, wandering between high-rise buildings, is not only inefficient, but also prone to accidents. In recent years, with the development of science and technology, this situation has improved. At present, there are two main methods used at home and abroad: one is to manually clean glass windows and walls by lifting platforms or hanging blue cleaners; The other is to use a track and cable hanging system installed on the roof to automatically clean the window cleaner at the window. Adopting the second method requires that the window cleaning system be taken into account at the beginning of the design of the building, and that it cannot adapt to the stepped shape of the wall surface, which limits the use of this method.

After the reform and opening up, China's economic construction has developed rapidly, and high-rise buildings have sprung up everywhere. However, as the supporting design of the building is not standardized, most of the domestic high-rise buildings are cleaned manually by hanging blue. Based on this situation, the Robotics Research Institute of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics has used its technical advantages to develop a glass ceiling (about 3,000 square meters) cleaning robot for Beijing West Railway Station in cooperation with the Beijing Railway Bureau Research Institute of the Ministry of Railways.

The robot is composed of a robot body and a ground support robot cart. The robot body is the main body that crawls along the glass wall surface and completes the scrubbing action. It weighs 25 kg. It can walk and scrub freely according to the actual environment and has high reliability. The ground support trolley is a supporting device. When the robot is working, it is responsible for powering, supplying gas, supplying water and recovering sewage from the robot. It is connected to the robot through a pipeline.

Face wall cleaning robot

At present, China's research on building cleaning robots also includes Harbin Institute of Technology and Shanghai University. They also have their own products.

The building cleaning robot is developed based on the wall climbing robot, which is only one of the uses of the wall climbing robot. The wall-climbing robot has two types of adsorption: negative pressure adsorption and magnetic adsorption. The building window cleaning robot uses negative pressure adsorption. Magnetic adsorption wall climbing robots have also been introduced in China, and