Robotic room: Symbiosis with human through behavior media

Abstract This paper discusses difference between conventional industrial robotics and human symbiosis robotics considering human characteristics. It clarifies necessary robotic functions in the human symbiosis robots. The functions are: (1) sharing mental activities, (2) sharing behavior, and (3) sharing physiological activities between the human and the robot. As a typical example of a human robot symbiosis system, the authors propose a “robotic room” which provides an infra-structure of labor power in our aging society. The robotic room consists of multiple surrounding sensors to communicate with human by means of behavior media as well as multiple actuators to support the human based on understood human states. The authors present mechanism to realize the robotic room. Finally, an application to a sickroom is illustrated as examples of understanding human behavior.