8 UML - Based Service Robot Software Development : A Case Study ∗

Robots have been used in several new applications. In recent years, both academic and commercial research has been focusing on the development of a new generation of robots in the emerging field of service robots. Service robots are individually designed to perform tasks in a specific environment for working with or assisting humans and must be able to perform services semior fully automatically (Kawamura & Iskarous, 1994; Rofer et al., 2000). Examples of service robots are those used for inspection, maintenance, housekeeping, office automation and aiding senior citizens or physically challenged individuals (Schraft, 1994; Rofer et al., 2000). A number of commercialized service robots have recently been introduced such as vacuum cleaning robots, home security robots, robots for lawn mowing, entertainment robots, and guide robots (Rofer et al., 2000; Kim et al., 2003; You et al., 2003; Pineau et al., 2003; Kim et al., 2005). In this context, Public Service Robot (PSR) systems have been developed for indoor service tasks at Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) (Kim et al., 2003; Kim et al., 2004). The PSR is an intelligent service robot, which has various capabilities such as navigation, manipulation, etc. Up to now, three versions of the PSR systems, that is, PSR-1, PSR-2, and a guide robot Jinny have been built. The worldwide aging population and health care costs of aged people are rapidly growing and are set to become a major problem in the coming decades. This phenomenon could lead to a huge market for service robots assisting with the care and support of the disabled and elderly in the future (Kawamura & Iskarous, 1994; Meng & Lee, 2004; Pineau et al., 2003). As a result, a new project is under development at Center for Intelligent Robotics (CIR) at KIST, i.e. the intelligent service robot for the elderly, called T-Rot.