Development of an intelligent container prototype for a logistical support robot system in living space

This paper reports development of an intelligent container, a unit of the logistical support robot system in living space. The container not only supports human to fix and arrange their commodities, but also supports robots to achieve their logistical tasks. In other words, the intelligent container is a mediator between human's request and robots' capabilities. The container has four major roles in our logistical support system. (1) Taking several commodities in and recognizing and acquiring contents' information. (2) Supporting human and robots to transfer the container. (3) Receiving users' command as a simple user-interface. (4) Communicating to a host computer and informs the contents of the container and users' command. To realize those roles, the container is equipped with a grasping navigation mechanism for robot handling, RFID reader for the recognition of contents, and LCD device to display supporting information to human and robot. Finally, a primary function is evaluated in experiment to confirm that an acceleration sensor enables the container to detect being transferred by human. In the future, the intelligent container will play a role of contact point for human and robots in our target system, that enables human-robot symbiotic life.