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NSC researchers working on range of robot caretakers

In the not-too-distant future, people will be able to purchase caretaker robots capable of taking orders in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Mandarin and Hakka to look after their elderly parents, the National Science Council said yesterday.

The robots were developed to replace human caretakers in a population that is ageing rapidly as baby boomers enter their 60s, said Hu Jwu-sheng (胡竹生), a National Chiao-tung University (NCTU) electrical and control engineering professor who heads up the project.

"On receiving voice commands, the robot would cook a meal, walk your dog, help you get up from a sitting position, or enable you to communicate via its embedded webcam with your grandson, your doctor, or your friends," he said.

Although many of these functions are still at the drawing board stage, prototypes "Rocky" and "Rola" are already capable of performing complex tasks, Hu said.

"Rocky and Rola are able to follow people, can integrate well with a digital home [for example, by picking up phones or turning off lights] and monitor vital signs in real time," Hu said.

The robots are capable of identifying and avoiding obstacles, and can send video, sound and text messages to emergency personnel in the event of an elderly person suffering a mishap, he said.

"In the future, machine-to-machine interactions will far outnumber those between humans and machines," Hu said.

Liao Yuan-fu (廖元甫), the robots' co-creator, said spoken language processing was key to the project.

"Basic speech command technology depends on preprogrammed commands that are listed in a manual and must be learned by the user, but spoken language processing technology enables users to control robots by speaking naturally," Liao said. "In our view, [technology that requires the user] to learn speech commands is no more advanced than [technology that requires the user] to push buttons on a remote control. The future of speech processing requires more sophisticated artificial intelligence that that."

The team also announced its development of an "organic" living space, which Hu said could detect its inhabitants' needs.

"Beneath the floor are numerous sensors, including a dense grid of RFID tags as position markers, a moderate grid of magnetic sensors used as metal-object proximity detectors, and a sparse grid of vibration sensors to detect movement," he said.

The experimental living space also features microphones, WiFi, ethernet, Bluetooth and a home server, Hu said.

The end result, he said, would be a far more "intelligent" and comfortable home.
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