BERLIN -- Visitors to Berlin's Museum of Communication, stepping into the grand entry hall, are met with a rather other-worldly greeting. One of three robots, about chest-high to an average adult, comes rolling up and offers an introduction to the museum and its exhibits. It's pretty much a sci-fi show, full of flashing lights and synthesized voices, just like the robots in Hollywood movies. And it's fun for the kids -- one of the robots is even programmed to play ball. But the three machines have a serious purpose.
"They help encourage acceptance and reduce fear of contact," said Christoph Schaeffer, an engineer at the world-famous robotics lab Fraunhofer-Institut f�r Produktionstechnik und Automatisierung (IPA) in Stuttgart, Germany. The institute, which designed the devices and put them into operation at the museum a year ago, hopes to win converts to its vision of a world in which robots are a part of daily life.
IPA is at work on designs for commercial robots, from machines that wash airplanes, to an intelligent gasoline pump that inserts itself into a car's fuel tank. But advances are also afoot in the small but growing field of service robotics, which includes machines for the home. Schaeffer said cheap and powerful microprocessors, plus advances in the sensor technology that helps robots interpret the world around them, are making household robots more commercially feasible.
But they still aren't cheap. Among the first such devices already on the market is the self-navigating lawnmower RL500, made by Israel's Friendly Robotics Inc., which retails in the U.S. for $795. The company says it has sold "several tens of thousands" of the machines in Israel, Europe, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. A competitor, Husqvarna AB's Auto Mower, is due in U.S. stores this year, priced at $1,999. The Swedish company has already sold between 5,000 and 6,000 of the machines, mostly in Scandinavia, said business manager Lars Andersson.
Husqvarna's parent company Electrolux AB is planning to tackle another tedious household chore with a consumer version of its robotic vacuum cleaner, first introduced in prototype form in December 1997. The microprocessor-driven machine, which navigates by radar, should be ready for commercial production "probably in less than a year," said spokesman Ulrich Gartner. He could offer no information on a retail price.
Other robotic cleaning devices, originally developed for industrial clients, are beginning to trickle down to the consumer level. Germany's Alfred K�rcher GmbH & Co. plans to introduce its automatic floor and carpet cleaner, which finds its way with the aid of infrared sensors, by the end of 2001. The retail price, 1,500 marks (US$697), is "not for every pocketbook," but the company hopes to find a niche with "people who love technology, like computer freaks, and people who hate vacuuming -- it makes them sick," said company spokesman Frank Schad.
Consumer-oriented robots enjoy some spillover from advances in industrial robotics -- the technology that's well known from car manufacturing, for example. But Schad pointed out that creating robots that can negotiate an average home, rather than working at a fixed point on an assembly line, presents some unique challenges. "It is much more complicated to automate a cleaning device than a manufacturing robot, because a cleaning robot has to work in any household; a manufacturing robot has a clearly defined task, and it has to deal with the environment much less."
Another stumbling block is that household machines aren't used enough hours a day to amortize high costs. "With industrial robots, the average number of working hours is something like 18 a day -- then you can afford sophisticated technology. But if it is a service robot in the home that works one hour a day, you can't afford expensive technology," said Jan Karlsson, who tracks robot sales for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
But some market niches are not especially price-sensitive. Schaeffer predicts a boom in robots designed to take on dangerous or life-threatening tasks, such as firefighting, nuclear waste cleanup, and defusing bombs. "A lot will be done in that area, because that's doing the most good; and the economic factor doesn't matter -- it's simply needed," he said.
Another growth area is in robots designed to help the disabled lead independent lives. The machines are sparking particular interest in Europe, with its aging populations and high labor costs.
Rehab Robotics Ltd. has placed more than 200 of its Handy 1 machines, a stationary robotic arm, mostly in the U.K. The device, which sells for 3,900 pounds (US$5,626), helps severely disabled people eat, drink, shave, apply makeup, and perform other personal tasks, said Professor Mike Topping of Staffordshire University, who developed the device and heads the private company.
More sophisticated robots for the disabled are still in the early phases. Topping's next project, a mobile robotic arm that can creep caterpillar-like along walls and ceilings, fixing itself in sockets to do its work, is envisioned as a general-purpose household help. The device will handle tasks like dusting and cleaning, and could also be used outdoors for maintenance and gardening. "And the robot could be doing these chores at nighttime while people are asleep," said Topping, who hopes to complete a working prototype of the device by the end of this year.
Scientists at the Research Center on Rehabilitation Bioengineering (RTR), at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, in Pisa, Italy, have already demonstrated a robotic system in a group home for disabled people. The device can perform chores such as cleaning surfaces, removing dirty sheets, or cooking a meal in a microwave oven, said doctoral student Giancarlo Teti.
Both Topping and Teti speak of plugging household robots into "domotics" systems -- intelligent homes that link various functions, from lighting to climate control to kitchen appliances, via a central PC or another networking device. That could put more of the devices within reach of the general public. "We're trying to lower the cost by integrating robotic systems into domotic technologies, so as to increase the market," said Teti.
The day may not be far away when even the average homeowner can turn to technology to handle what few chores are still done by hand today -- from ironing, to loading the dishwasher, to pulling weeds. For those who would rather lie in a hammock than push a lawnmower, that will be a happy day indeed.
