Humanoids: Future Robots for Home and Factory

Humanoid robots have typically been thought of as service robots that work in a close relationship with one or more humans; however, we believe that humanoid robots can also play an important role in manufacturing, especially holonic manufacturing. In this paper, we discuss several key problems that must be solved before humanoid robots can assume useful roles in society, both at home and in the factory. We identify three basic classes of technologies that are needed to produce useful humanoids. The first consists of those key technologies that are needed for all humanoid robots, both for home robots as well as factory robots. The second class of technologies is more necessary for humanoid robots functioning in a home setting, while the third class is more appropriate for humanoids in the factory. In particular, we discuss in some detail two key technologies of the first class that we are developing in the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Vanderbilt University. The first is a simple and effective visual servoing method for achieving hand-eye coordination and the second is the Intelligent Machine Architecture (IMA), a software architecture for robot development. Additionally, we present two examples of how humanoid robots can be used in the home (as an assistant for the physically disabled) and in the factory (as an assembly holon).