The Assistant Personal Robot Project: From the APR-01 to the APR-02 Mobile Robot Prototypes

This paper describes the evolution of Assistant Personal Robot (APR) project developed at Robotics Laboratory University Lleida, Spain. first APR-01 prototype developed, basic hardware improvement, specific anthropomorphic improvements, and preference surveys conducted with engineering students from same university in order to maximize perceived affinity final APR-02 mobile robot prototype. The improvements have covered design arms, implementation arm symbolic hand, selection a face for robot, neutral facial expression, an animation mouth, application proximity feedback, gaze use gestures, motion planning strategy, nominal translational velocity. conclusion is that development during has greatly influenced its contributed increase social acceptability prototype, which now ready develop assistance applications dynamic workspaces.