Guard Robot Research Articles

Field Trial of a Queue-Managing Security Guard Robot

We developed a security guard robot that is specifically designed to manage queues of people and conducted a field trial at an actual public event to assess its effectiveness. However, the acceptance of robot instructions or admonishments poses challenges in real-world applications. Our primary objective was to achieve an effective and socially acceptable queue-management solution. To accomplish this, we took inspiration from human security guards whose role has already been well received in society. Our robot, whose design embodied the image of a professional security guard, focused on three key aspects: duties, professional behavior, and appearance. To ensure its competence, we interviewed professional security guards to deepen our understanding of the responsibilities associated with queue management. Based on their insights, we incorporated features of ushering, admonishing, announcing, and question answering into the robot’s functionality. We also prioritized the modeling of professional ushering behavior. During a 10-day field trial at a children’s amusement event, we interviewed both the visitors who interacted with the robot and the event staff. The results revealed that visitors generally complied with its ushering and admonishments, indicating a positive reception. Both visitors and event staff expressed an overall favorable impression of the robot and its queue-management services. These findings suggest that our proposed security guard robot shows great promise as a solution for effective crowd handling in public spaces.

Pemanfaatan Modul Lora SX1278 Sebagai Sistem Telekontrol pada Robot Penjaga

The frequent armed conflicts in Papua have earned it the dubious distinction of being the number one region in Indonesia with the highest incidence of armed conflicts. These actions are claimed to be the work of the Armed Criminal Group (ACG) and often target military posts or guard stations. Given the conditions at these guard stations, there is a perceived need to introduce technology for better anticipating and countering attacks. In response to these challenges, the author envisions the introduction of a guard robot as a solution. This proposed guard robot is integrated with an SS2 weapon and has the capability for remote control of its firing. The remote control of the robot is facilitated by the LoRa Sx1278 module, which is purported to have a range of up to 500 meters. The researcher's proposed guard robot consists of components, including the Arduino Nano, LoRa SX1278 Module, L298N Motor Driver, DC Motors, Solenoid, 12-Volt LiPo Battery, Step-down module, and KY-023 Joystick. The research findings highlight the impact of the quantity of data on transmission delay. The lowest delay observed during the 10th test, with the transmission of 10 words, had an average delay of 531 ms, while the lowest delay during the first test, involving the transmission of a single word, had an average delay of 81 ms. In terms of data transmission range tests using the LoRa SX1278 module, under Line of Sight (LOS) conditions, the best range achieved was 350 meters, whereas under Non-Line of Sight (NLOS) conditions, the range was limited to 100 meters.

Stop Ignoring Me! On Fighting the Trivialization of Social Robots in Public Spaces

Service and social robot in public scenarios will face various tasks in future applications, such as guiding people or admonishing them to provide assistance or convey social norms. Robots in public spaces might also incorporate roles of authority figures who might admonish people (e.g., security or guard robots). However, recent investigations showed that people ignore the admonishment of robots. Thus, in this work, we are looking at the reasons why people might ignore robots based on the Cognitive Dissonance Theory (CDT). We present the results of two consecutive field observations where a robot admonishes participants (i.e., pedestrians in a shopping mall) and requests them to stop using a smartphone while walking, which is considered an unmoral behavior. In the first field observation, we approached 160 participants over four days and conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 of them. Approximately half of the people ignored the robot, and half of them followed the instructions. Our interview results show that people who ignore the robot indeed use trivialization as a cognitive dissonance reduction strategy to justify ignoring the robot. Based on our analysis of the results, we developed a counter-trivialization strategy that anticipates this dissonance reduction strategy. We admonished 167 participants in our second field observation over four days, and our results show that significantly fewer people ignore the instructions of the robot when the robot uses a counter-trivialization strategy.

Factors affecting trust in high-vulnerability human-robot interaction contexts: A structural equation modelling approach

The current research proposed and tested a structural equation model (SEM) that describes hypothesized relationships among factors affecting trust in human-robot interaction (HRI) such as trustworthiness, human-likeness, intelligence, perfect automation schema (PAS), and affect. A video stimulus depicting an autonomous guard robot interacting with humans was employed as a stimulus via Amazon's Mechanical Turk to recruit 233 participants. Human-related and robot-related metrics were found to affect trustworthiness that subsequently affected trust. In particular, ability (as a trustworthiness facet) was a dominant factor affecting trust in HRI. Integrity was found to mediate the relationships between robot- and human-related metrics and trustworthiness. This study also showed a correlation between intelligence and trustworthiness, as well as between PAS and trustworthiness. The findings of the present study have significant implications for both theory and practice on factors and levels that affect trust in HRI.

Analysis and Design of Fire Guard Robot (FGR)

Analysis and Design of Fire Guard Robot (FGR)

Trusting Robocop: Gender-Based Effects on Trust of an Autonomous Robot.

Little is known regarding public opinion of autonomous robots. Trust of these robots is a pertinent topic as this construct relates to one’s willingness to be vulnerable to such systems. The current research examined gender-based effects of trust in the context of an autonomous security robot. Participants (N = 200; 63% male) viewed a video depicting an autonomous guard robot interacting with humans using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The robot was equipped with a non-lethal device to deter non-authorized visitors and the video depicted the robot using this non-lethal device on one of the three humans in the video. However, the scenario was designed to create uncertainty regarding who was at fault – the robot or the human. Following the video, participants rated their trust in the robot, perceived trustworthiness of the robot, and their desire to utilize similar autonomous robots in several different contexts that varied from military use to commercial use to home use. The results of the study demonstrated that females reported higher trust and perceived trustworthiness of the robot relative to males. Implications for the role of individual differences in trust of robots are discussed.

Time-space Viewpoint Planning for Guard Robot with Chance Constraint

This paper presents a novel movement planning algorithm for a guard robot in an indoor environment, imitating the job of human security. A movement planner is employed by the guard robot to continuously observe a certain person. This problem can be distinguished from the person following problem which continuously follows the object. Instead, the movement planner aims to reduce the movement and the energy while keeping the target person under its visibility. The proposed algorithm exploits the topological features of the environment to obtain a set of viewpoint candidates, and it is then optimized by a cost-based set covering problem. Both the robot and the target person are modeled using geodesic motion model which considers the environment shape. Subsequently, a particle model-based planner is employed, considering the chance constraints over the robot visibility, to choose an optimal action for the robot. Simulation results using 3D simulator and experiments on a real environment are provided to show the feasibility and effectiveness of our algorithm.

Guard Robot Alarm System Design Based on GPRS

This paper designs guard robot alarm system using GPRS technology. An interesting communications infrastructure for remotely accessing is offered based on GPRS, which can control and interact with robots in an integrated and highly portable manner. In recent years the GPRS network provides wireless access of internet for mobile phone which becomes the most important and common terminal equipment. Therefore, the alarm information is designed to send to the user’s mobile phone through GPRS networks, and man-made intervention is added to the system, thus a more reliable and convenient alarm system is implemented. The system mainly consists of two parts: detection of abnormal and dangerous situation in domestic environment and sending the alarm information as MMS form to the user’s phone via GPRS networks.

가변길이 엔드팁을 갖는 원추형 스프링을 이용한 도약로봇의 이동성 향상

Mobility is one of the most important features for a guard robot since it should be operated in rough places. A wheel-based mobile robot capable of jumping is an appropriate structure for a guard robot because it can easily satisfy the requirements for small guard robots. The jumping robot can reach a higher place more rapidly than other locomotion methods. This research proposes a small robot equipped with the jumping mechanism based on the conical spring with the variable length endtip. The variable length endtip enables the independent control of the jump force and jump angle which are related to the jump height and jump distance, respectively. Various experiments demonstrated that the proposed jumping mechanism can provide the independent control of jump force and jump angle, and improve the mobility of a small robot to overcome an obstacle. Furthermore, a combination of the jumping mechanism and the PSD sensor to measure the distance to the step enable the jumping robot to autonomously climb stairs.

Competing models-based text-prompted speaker independent verification algorithm

In this paper, we propose competing models based on text-prompted speaker independent verification algorithm for an intelligent surveillance guard robot, wherein a robot prompts a code (i.e. word or phrase) for user entrance authentication. The proposed system requires the text-prompted speaker independent verification. In addition, it does not require a speaker dependent model and extra trained model as an alternative hypothesis for log-likelihood ratio test because of memory limitation. This is due to the given application scenario that an administrator changes the voice code every day for security reasoning and the targeting domain is unlimited. To resolve these issues, we propose to exploit the sub-word based anti-models for log-likelihood normalization through reusing an acoustic model and competing with voice code model. Anti-models using automatic production rules are set up in an initial time by using the statistical distance of phonemes against a voice code. The proposed system uses a two-pass strategy using a SCHMM-based recognition and verification step. In addition, a harmonics-based spectral subtraction algorithm is applied for a noisy robustness on an outdoor environment. The performance evaluation is done by using a common Korean database, PBW452DB, which consists of 63,280 utterances of 452 isolated words recorded in silent environment.

1P2-N-036 屋外警備用ロボット「ガードロボi」の紹介(愛知万博ロボットの最先端技術,生活を支援するロボメカ技術のメガインテグレーション)

1P2-N-036 屋外警備用ロボット「ガードロボi」の紹介(愛知万博ロボットの最先端技術,生活を支援するロボメカ技術のメガインテグレーション)

Guard robots, net-enabled monitoring systems popular

Guard robots, net-enabled monitoring systems popular

Vision Based Mobile Robot Control for Target Tracking

Target tracking function is essential for autonomous human-interactive robots such as guide robots, security guard robots, pet robots etc. However, there is no detail study about the control ofmobile robots for this target tracking purpose. In this paper, target tracking of mobile robots is studied in functional viewpoint. It turned out that the robot basically has to have two functions to accomplish the target tracking behavior. Proper algorithms for these two functions will be introduced and verified with simulation study.

Special Issue on Current Status and Prospects of Amusement Robots

Manipulating robots that have been developed to replace the functions of human hands have successfully achieved the objectives of industrial robots; more than 400,000 of such robots are currently in operation, primarily in production lines of factories worldwide. Furthermore, robots with locomotive functions, i.e. autonomous ground vehicles and mobile robots, are being widely used in both production and non-production environments. Actually a great number of mobile robots are operating in non-production environments. Examples are robots for service applications in offices, hospitals, and homes; safety guard robots; maintenance and supervision robots; firefighting robots; emergency rescue robots; hazard prevention robots; space robots; and educational robots. These robots, whether they are intended for production or non-production use, make a significant contribution to mankind by performing some useful jobs or by accomplishing some useful duties in place of humans; thus, relieving humans of hard labor. In addition to the above robots, researchers, have developed many robots that belong to the conceptual classification of amusement robots. These robots do not perform any useful work or tasks in place of humans; however, they amuse the people who watch them play games or who manipulate them. Many automata that imitate the actions of humans have been developed both in Europe and in Japan. Such robots can be considered as prototypes of amusement robots. Included in the anthropomorphic automata developed in Europe are automatic puppets that play musical instruments, write letters, or draw pictures, dance, or something of the like. Similarly in Japan, since approximately 300 years ago, various types of automata called karakuri-puppets have been developed, and these puppets fascinate naive audiences even today by playing elegant dramas or performing some acrobatic feats at festivals held at shrines and temples. In Japan in 1796, Yorinao Hosokawa published an excellent technical book on the mechanisms and design of the karakuri-puppets. Today, thanks to the progress of microcomputers, a large number of performance robots have been developed that replace the functions of human being and animals or can perform behaviors that no animate creatures can do. Various types of robot contests have already been held including micromouse, tennis matches, ball-collection contests, and water-dipping contests. It is expected that international robot Olympiads for the contests of advanced technology and intelligence are expected to be held in the future. The progress of contest robots of the highest technical level will contribute to the progress of robot technology. People of all ages, from infants to old men and women, would be able to entertain themselves by playing with robots and could share emotion with the robots if people can develop various types of such amusement robots that can appeal to the feelings of people. Furthermore, robots can provide people with mental satisfaction as well as can be the consultants and friends of them. Amusement robots must stimulate the imaginations of young researchers, contributing to the progress of robotics. Consequently, the development of robots that are extremely similar to human being will be the next target.