la cybernétique

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RobuTER (1987) by Vincent Dupourqué, Robosoft, France. The 1987 version of robuTER with clean lines and modular design, was ahead of its time. Used in European research programs, it was known for its compact shape and forward-looking interface. The last photo shows a "fun and daring load test on a Robosoft mobile platform — robustness in action!"

"In 1985, convinced of the innovation’s potential, Vincent founded Robosoft to industrialize and commercialize the robuTER. It quickly became one of the first mobile service robots in Europe, used for research, education, and technical development. Between 1985 and the late 1990s, more than 100 robuTER units were manufactured and deployed in research laboratories across the world. robuTER laid the groundwork for what is now a major field: robots designed to navigate and assist in human environments." – Robosoft, The Origin of robuTER: When ROBot Met compuTER.

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RobuTER prototype (1985) by Vincent Dupourqué, National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (INRIA), France. The first image above shows one of the earliest robuTER prototypes, built at INRIA in the mid-1980s.

"The story of robuTER begins in a research lab at INRIA in the early 1980s. At the time, researchers in computer vision were developing algorithms to perceive and analyze visual environments. Their goal was clear: to apply these algorithms to robotics, in order to create machines capable of navigating intelligently through the real world. It was in this context that Vincent Dupourqué envisioned the very first robuTER. He designed an autonomous mobile robot from an electric wheelchair, intended to serve as a platform for experimenting with service robotics. The name robuTER is a play on words that reflects this fusion: it combines ROBot and compuTER, symbolizing the union of mobile mechanics and embedded intelligence." – Robosoft, The Origin of robuTER: When ROBot Met compuTER.

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Kompaï-3 (2019) by KOMPAÏ Robotics, Bidart, France.

"This robot supports independent living and sociability for OAs [Older Adults]. The Kompaï robot provides miscellaneous services: day and night surveillance, mobility assistance, fall detection, shopping list management, agenda, social connectivity, cognitive stimulation and health monitoring. The Kompaï robot can also recognize speech, navigate through unknown environments, avoid obstacles and detect risky situations. Users interact with the robot via a touch screen and voice, and it is equipped with a small handle to help the elderly rise. Kompaï’s third version platform was improved to be more user-friendly." – A Review on the Use of Mobile Service Robots in Elderly Care, Pouyan Asgharian, Adina M. Panchea and François Ferland.

"The acquisition by a French investor and the transfer of Robosoft's activities to Toulouse led to Robosoft's liquidation in April 2017. "I had ceased my activities with Robosoft in 2015, but I was a minority shareholder. I bought Kompaï's assets before the liquidation," recounts Vincent Dupourqué, who limits his communication on this matter, which is clearly not entirely resolved… In July 2016, he created the company KOMPAÏ robotics in Bidart to dedicate himself solely to the development of the Kompaï robot. A small team of five engineers is currently working on the third version of Kompaï. The goal is to lower the current price to around €20,000-€25,000, explains Vincent Dupourqué, with a market launch within two years at a price of €5,000. A partnership has been established with the French group Korian, which operates 710 nursing homes and assisted living facilities (365 of which are in France) across Europe. "Initially, we are targeting the market for long-term care facilities for dependent elderly people (EHPADs), with Kompaï positioned as a tool for staff. Discussions are underway to adapt organizational structures." As you can see, introducing a robot—even one with a friendly face—into human teams requires diplomacy. The latest artificial intelligence technologies, particularly in the area of ​​conversational intelligence, will be integrated. The development of Kompaï will inevitably involve the arrival of investors; this is the rule for a young, innovative company like KOMPAÏ robotics." – A third generation of Kompaï robots, La Semaine No 1231, June 15 2017.

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Kompaï-2 (2015) by Robosoft, France. "KOMPAÏ-2, with its new and improved design, includes … IoT and Big Data technologies, in addition to state-of-the-art navigation and Human-Machine Interface. It has been on the market since early 2016."

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Mobiserv AKA Kompaï (2009) by Robosoft, France. The Mobiserv European project started in 2009 with the aim of developing robots to support older adults with their health, nutrition, safety and well-being needs. This mobile semi-humanoid robot is equipped with stereoscopic cameras, two-way audio communication, and a touchscreen interface.

"Mobiserv is targeted at older persons with early dementia and/or physical disabilities and provides health-care support, wellness monitoring, safety protection, and social support through nutrition assistance and dehydration prevention. This includes a health-coach providing a self-check platform and motivational advice for physical activities as well as games for social and cognitive stimulation responsive to the user’s emotions. Mobiserv also provides a mobile remote control for the home and a panic responder with audio/video communication to a service centre, family/friends." – “Maybe it becomes a buddy, but do not call it a robot”, Claire Huijnen, Atta Badii, Herjan van den Heuvel, Praminda Caleb-Solly, Daniel Thiemert.

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Kompaï AKA RobuMate (2010) by Robosoft, France. Kompaï is designed to assist elderly and disabled people and others who need special care. It talks, understands speech, and can navigate autonomously. It was used in the DOMEO project exploring the provision of "Ambient Assisted Living".

"It is a mobile and communicative product. Somewhat like a dog, it has its "basket," which is the recharging dock that it heads back to when its batteries are low. Equipped with speech, it is able to understand simple orders and give a certain level of response. It knows its position within the house, how to get from one point to another on demand or on its own initiative, and it remains permanently connected to the internet and all its associated services. Its primary means of communication with people is speech, with an additional touch screen that features simple icons. Future generations of Kompaï will be equipped with visual abilities, and also the possibility to understand and express emotions. And later, the addition of arms will allow it to handle objects, leading to meal preparation and tidying; more practical functions, yet still fundamental in everyday life." – "Robosoft Unveils Kompai Robot To Assist Elderly, Disabled" by Erico Guizzo, IEEE Spectrum.

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CLARA AKA CLARC (2016) by Adrián Romero-Garcés , Juan Pedro Bandera , Rebeca Marfil , Martín González-García, Antonio Bandera, Departamento Tecnologia Electronica, ETSI Telecomunicacion, University of Málaga, Spain. CLARA is a socially assistive robot developed within the CLARC project. The goal was to develop a Cognitive Robot for assisting geriatric doctors in real care environments. The top two photos show CLARA with alternative body housings. The last photo shows the adapted SCITOS G3 base without the housing.

"The fundamental service that CLARA had to provide was the ability to autonomously conduct some tests typically included in the CGA [Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment]. Briefly, the robot needed to autonomously conduct a questionnaire-based test (the Barthel test), a test for evaluating the patient’s gait (the get-up-and-go test), and a test for cognitive evaluation (the mini-mental test). However, before conducting the tests, the CLARC robot needed to introduce itself as an accessible and helpful assistant (or, at least, a tool). CLARA was designed to be able to receive and accompany patients and their families to the medical consulting room and, once there, help the physician to capture and manage their data during CGA procedures. To meet these requirements, we had to develop a robot that could talk or navigate between standing people, but whose perceptual resources were mainly designed to interact with a seated person being interviewed in a questionnaire-type test or to capture the gait of a person in a test such as the get-up-and-go test in which the person walks up to four meters away from the robot." – CLARA: Building a Socially Assistive Robot to Interact with Elderly People.

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Quori socially interactive robot platform (2019) by Mark Yim, Mariana Ibañez, and Simon Kim, Immersive Kinematics Lab, Cambridge, MA.

"Displayed as part of the exhibit "Designs for Different Futures" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art 2019-2020, Quori is intended as a basis for the study of human-robot interaction (HRI) research. It stands about five feet tall, and has a customizable digital face, moveable torso and arms. The motors and wheels in the omnidirectional mobile base are protected by a pyramid-shaped shell. Quori can respond to human movement, turning, waving and bowing in response to people near it."

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MILVA (1994) by Mecos Robotics AG, Switzerland, and the Neuroinformatics and Cognitive Robotics Lab, Technische Universität, Ilmenau, Germany.

"The MILVA robot was one of the first robots in the department to serve as a research platform for various fundamental models of biologically motivated perception and action planning. It was therefore rebuilt several times and equipped with various sensors. Later, MILVA also served as a platform for outdoor robotics, could be controlled remotely via the Internet and learnt to assess the navigability of surfaces. ... MILVA was a central experimental platform in the development of the 'perception-through-participation' approach for the self-organization of an individual understanding of space and form." – Neuroinformatics and Cognitive Robotics Lab, Technische Universität, Ilmenau.

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TAMS Service Robot "TASER" (2003) Universität Hamburg (UHAM), Hamburg, Germany. TASER was developed by the robotics research group for "Technical Aspects of Multimodal Systems" (TAMS) at UHAM. The mobile platform of TASER is a modified MP-L-655 from NEOBOTIX with two robot arms, each equipped with a Barret Hand – a three-finger hand with 8 DoF.

"UHAM will provide the robot TASER that will be used only in the initial developmental activities of Robot-Era. TASER is the main research platform of group TAMS from UHAM. It is mainly used for delivery tasks in home and office environments with its sub-tasks like human interaction, localization, object detection and grasping. The robot system features a mobile platform with differential drive and wheel encoders, two laser range finders and is controlled by an industrial computer PC. Different sensor and actuator systems as well as control strategies can be tested with the robot platform." – Robot-Era Prototypes and Experimental Platforms.

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Toy-Pet Plexi-Ball (1968) by Robin Parkinson and Eric Martin, USA. This is not a Sphero Bolt but an 11” transparent sphere that rolls around in response to light & sound. It can be subdued by stuffing it into a furry skin.

“The Toy-Pet Plexi-Ball has three ‘eyes’ and one ‘ear’ that respond to light and sound. Its creators explain: If a person, in the same room with the sphere, makes a loud noise, such as clapping his hands, the sphere begins to roll. If, after five seconds, he makes no other loud noise, the sphere will stop. If he continues making noise for the five seconds, the sphere continues to roll for a longer period in the same direction. If the sphere has stopped and the person makes a noise a second time, the sphere rolls in another direction. If he directs the sphere toward any other object, it eventually sees a reflection of its blinking and goes in either of two other directions. If he approaches the sphere and gets in front of the light source, the sphere sees him and begins to move in one of three directions. A controlled series of sounds can guide the sphere in the direction of another person or pursue him around the room. The only override to the sphere's internal decision-making process consists of throwing a blanket over the sphere, or putting it in its special bag. The sphere then remains in a dormant state until released.” – Museum of Modern art, NY, “The Machine: As Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age” by K.G. Pontus Hultén (1968).

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Roberto (1952) by Bernard Kollwitz, Germany. Roberto was exhibited at the Museumsstiftung Post und Telekommunikation in the 2007 exhibition, “Die Roboter Kommen!”

“The 1950s were the first golden age of advertising robots. With great interest from the press and the public, larger-than-life metal men trudged through the streets, whose technical abilities were usually low: they could perform little more than simple step, arm and head movements. The radio controlled advertising robot "Roberto" is well documented, as presented by advertising specialist Bernhard Kollwitz in 1952 - "Inch by inch, he went his leisurely way, and it was believed to be a man from Mars," the Recklinghäuser Zeitung wrote at the time. Whether the advertising robot exhibited here is "Roberto" or a successor from the hand of the inventor cannot be determined with certainty, but the stylistic similarity is obvious.” – "Die Roboter Kommen!" 2007.

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Bert and Ernie - Roombas at the End of the World (2020). Bert and Ernie are Roombas living and working at Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, but in January 2020, Ernie went missing. Had it somehow escaped, only to face bitter polar temperatures around -28 °C?

“I believe it started with just one poster that went up outside of the galley, with a picture of two people calling themselves the Cookie Monsters posing in balaclavas and standing on a staircase holding Ernie. It said something like, “If you ever want to see Ernie alive again, leave a tray of chocolate chip cookies in such and such location and we will return him safely.” So that was the initial ransom.

As tends to happen in a community like this, things sort of took off from there—everybody ran with it in their own direction. So, on that wall outside of the galley, there evolved a narrative where people were trying to mount rescue missions, and there were sign-up sheets for that. And there were people saying, “We won’t negotiate with you until you provide proof of life.”

Down the hallway, there was another narrative where people had assumed the worst: that the kidnappers had ended poor Ernie’s life prematurely. So the memorial that had sprung up for Ernie next to one of the water fountains grew. There were fake flowers and Tootsie rolls, and some people put some trash there, just in homage—trash that Ernie would never be able to sweep up. I even ended up writing a parody of the song “5,000 Candles in the Wind” from “Parks and Recreation” for Ernie, and singing it at an open-mic night.

But Ernie did come back. Those of us who believed that he had perished (I was one of those) were in the wrong. Someone claimed that the cookies had been delivered and that the kidnappers should give Ernie back, and then there was a poster that went up that said Ernie was found abandoned underneath one of the staircases. He was rescued and revived by the Cookie Monsters. So, the kidnappers sort of got credit for saving him in the end.”

- Kyle Ferguson, South Pole Telescope Researcher.

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ASTROMOBILE (2011) ASTROMOBILE (Assistive SmarT RObotic platform for indoor environments: MOBILity and intEraction) is a robot platform explored in the Robot-Era framework. It's based on the SCITOS G5 platform with added sensory systems including cameras, gas sensors, a laser scanner, and indoor localisation.

"The ASTROMOBILE project aims to develop and demonstrate that a smart robotic mobile platform for indoor environments with an embodied bi-directional interface with the world and the users can be conceived to improve services useful for humans. The ASTROMOBILE applications range could be very wide, including industrial environments, security, rehabilitation robot, personal and companion robot, etc… In particular, this project wishes to address the use of a smart robotic mobile platform in a domestic environment, covering possible applications, such as a personal robot for non-self-sufficient people, for telework or for security. The ASTROMOBILE robot-assistant cooperates with users in the indoor environment to help them in daily life or working activities. Therefore, natural speech recognition control could be very helpful, because the speech skill of elder people stays intact the longest." – ASTROMOBILE - Assistive SmarT RObotic platform for indoor environments: MOBILity and intEraction.

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Hector AKA SCITOS G3 (2011) MetraLabs, Thuringia, Germany. The SCITOS G3 mobile service robot was developed in the EU-funded CompanionAble project. The robot has a tiltable touch display and a head with two OLED displays for 'eyes'.

"We show several docking tests of our Scitos G3 robot as part of longterm trials in the CompanionAble project. The robot autonomously drives to a place in front of the docking station. Afterwards, its navigation software switches seamlessly into docking mode, where the robot localizes itself in front of the docking station using a checkerboard pattern that is tracked by a webcam in the rear of the robot. While driving backward, the robot follows an alignment trajectory that perfectly aligns the robot's charging connector with a docking plug that is mounted on the docking station. Although the docking plug is slightly flexible, the precision of the docking alignment must be within 2 centimeters, which is quite challenging for a robot of the given size and weight and with restricted free space in front of the docking station. The navigation software is able to detect if the robot cannot reach the station with the required precision, e.g. when the initial pose of the robot is too far away from the docking station due to localization errors. In this case it performs a correction movement to achieve a better alignment as shown in the test runs #2 and #3. Using this failsafe docking technique the robot is able to operate fully autonomously around the clock without need of intervention in our longterm trials." – Vision-Guided Inch-Perfect Docking of an Autonomous Robot.

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SCITOS A5 (2008) MetraLabs, Thuringia, Germany. SCITOS A5 – Guide, entertainer and security multifunction mobile service robot.

"SCITOS A5 is a multifunctional mobile service robot. Developed by MetraLabs for interaction with humans and guiding to articles and exhibits. Additionally, SCITOS A5 has a 360° camera. The panorama view ensures a permanent surveillance of the environment. The robot drives autonomously towards people. It communicates using speech synthesis, head movements and a touch display. It avoids obstacles and is programmed to be familiar with the given building’s environment. There is no need for additional sensors or marks. SCITOS A5 gets to know his environment by doing." – Handling autonomous mobile robot SCITOS A5.

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SCITOS G5 (2007) MetraLabs, Thuringia, Germany, and the Neuroinformatics and Cognitive Robotics Lab, Technische Universität, Ilmenau. The top two photos show the front (left) and rear (right) of the unit.

"The robot SCITOS is a result of a close R&D collaboration between our department and the MetraLabs GmbH Ilmenau within the project SERROKON (SERvice-ROboter-KONzeption) funded by the Thuringian Ministry of Economy, Technology and Labour between 2004 and 2006. MetraLabs has been responsible for both the concept, design and construction and the mechanical, mechatronic and electronic development of the platform and its sensory equipment and on-board processing capabilities, while our department has been developing the concepts, algorithms and techniques for robust multi-modal navigation and self-localization and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). SCITOS has been developed to yield a low cost, interactive platform capable to operate in public places. It uses a differential drive and is equipped with a sonar ring (24 sensors), optional laser range finder, an omnidirectional color camera at its top, a touch display, a microphone, loudspeakers, and a simplified movable head. The robot has a maximum velocity of about 2 meters per second, a height of about 140 cm, a diameter of 57 cm and a weight of about 60 kg." – Robot Equipment, Neuroinformatics and Cognitive Robotics Lab, Technische Universität, Ilmenau.