Ngo, Trung Dung (University of Prince Edward Island)

Purpose

Industrial robots have set the important milestone in the era of automated machines used to replace humans in carrying out repeatable and dangerous jobs in manufacturing over 50 years. However, in this century, professional and domestic mobile service robots play the key role as human counterparts and caregivers in both industrial and daily-life settings. Mobile service robots not only replace humans in minimizing their hands-on tasks but also work with humans to stimulate them to focus on cognitively demanding tasks. Nevertheless, the first and most important concern is how to enable mobile service robots to work around or with humans without causing them danger. Moreover, we expect to make professional and domestic service robots to interact with human co-workers in culturally and contextually acceptable manners when human physical safety and psychological comfort have been completely guaranteed.