Probablistic Control of Human Robot Interaction : Experiments with A Robotic Assistant for Nursing Homes
This paper describes an implemented robot system designed t o assist nurses and elderly persons in institutionalized se ttings. The robot Pearl has been developed as a multi-functional rob otic assistant. Its primary task involves guiding people th rough a nursing facility, reminding them of upcoming events and th e need to take medication, and providing them with informati on very much like a mobile information kiosk. In the past 24 mont hs, the robot has been deployed more than six times in an elder ly care facility in Oakmont, PA. In this paper, we present three software modules relevant to ensure successful robot perfo rmance in a dynamic and interactive task domain: an automated remin der system; a people-tracking and detection system; and fina lly a high-level robot controller which performs planning unde r uncertainty by incorporating knowledge from low-level mo dules, and selecting appropriate courses of actions.