This paper describes our concept of Intelligent Space. Intelligent Spaces are rooms or areas that are equipped with sensors, which enable the spaces to perceive and understand what is happening in them. With such features, people or systems in the Intelligent Space can use additional functions that are afforded by the space. This research field itself is not particularly related to robotics, but we believe robots under Intelligent Spaces have many interesting features. Intelligent Spaces are expected to have a broad range of applications such as in homes, offices, factories, etc. Thus, we can consider that a robot, which will be used in our general living environment, is related to the concept of Intelligent Space. Several applications of Intelligent Space are shown in this paper with descriptions.

Intelligent Space — concept and contents

In recent years, considerable amount of research has been dedicated to the integration of artificial cognitive functionalities into informatics. With the immense growth in volume of cognitive content handled by both artificial and natural cognitive systems, the scientific treatment of new and efficient communication forms between such cognitive systems is inevitable. In this paper, we provide the first definition of cognitive infocommunications, a multidisciplinary field which aims to expand the information space between communicating cognitive systems (artificial or otherwise). Following this definition, we specify the modes and types of communication which make up cognitive infocommunications. Through a number of examples, we describe what is expected from this new discipline in further detail.

Cognitive Infocommunications (Coginfocom)

Intelligent techniques foster the dissemination of new discoveries and novel technologies that advance the ability of robots to assist and support humans. The human-centered intelligent robot has become an important research field that spans all of the robot capabilities including navigation, intelligent control, pattern recognition and human-robot interaction. This paper focuses on the recent achievements and presents a survey of existing works on human-centered robots. Furthermore, we provide a comprehensive survey of the recent development of the human-centered intelligent robot and discuss the issues and challenges in the field.

A survey of human-centered intelligent robots: issues and challenges

Recent technology and market trends have demanded the significant need for feasible solutions to video/camera systems and analytics. This paper provides a comprehensive account on theory and application of intelligent video systems and analytics. It highlights the video system architectures, tasks, and related analytic methods. It clearly demonstrates that the importance of the role that intelligent video systems and analytics play can be found in a variety of domains such as transportation and surveillance. Research directions are outlined with a focus on what is essential to achieve the goals of intelligent video systems and analytics.

Intelligent Video Systems and Analytics: A Survey

Mobile robots need sufficient sensors and information on the environment in order to navigate. In this paper, we propose a system of mobile robots, which is controlled in a distributed intelligent sensor network. In such a networked space, the environment is divided by distributed sensors. Each area is monitored by a distributed sensor device, which connects with other distributed sensor devices and robots throughout the network. As a result, the mobile robots are able to accomplish tasks simply by following orders from the sensor devices in the networked environment, although the mobile robots are not self-contained with information on the environment and sensors for self-positioning and control. We test several situations to verify the proposed system.

Controlling mobile robots in distributed intelligent sensor network

The robots that will be needed in the near future are human-friendly robots that are able to coexist with humans and support humans effectively. To realize this, humans and robots need to be in close proximity to each other as much as possible. Moreover, it is necessary for their interactions to occur naturally. It is desirable for a robot to carry out human following, as one of the human-affinitive movements. The human-following robot requires several techniques: the recognition of the target human, the recognition of the environment around the robot, and the control strategy for following a human stably. In this research, an intelligent environment is used in order to achieve these goals. An intelligent environment is a space in which many sensors and intelligent devices are distributed. Mobile robots exist in this space as physical agents providing humans with services. A mobile robot is controlled to follow a walking human using distributed intelligent sensors as stably and precisely as possible. The control law based on the virtual spring model is proposed to mitigate the difference of movement between the human and the mobile robot. The proposed control law is applied to the intelligent environment and its performance is verified by the computer simulation and the experiment.

Human-following mobile robot in a distributed intelligent sensor network

We propose an architecture of intelligent space based on distributed intelligent sensors. Intelligent space is an environmental system able to support humans in informative and physical ways. Since an intelligent space should adapt to the various sizes and shapes of an environment, an architecture based on distributed intelligent sensors is designed. The proposed architecture satisfies not only scalability but also reconfigurability, modularity, easy maintenance, and affinity problems in building an intelligent space. Intelligent sensors are distributed among a space and they provide functions based on position information. According to the particular situation, cooperation among intelligent sensors or cooperation among function modules in the intelligent sensors are performed. Selected demonstrations are described in the paper.

Cooperation of distributed intelligent sensors in intelligent environment

Intelligent space is a space where many sensors and intelligent devices are distributed. Mobile robots exist in this space as physical agents, which provide human with services. To realize this, human and mobile robots have to approach each other as much as possible. Moreover, it is necessary for them to perform interactions naturally. It is desirable for a mobile robot to carry out human-affinitive movement. In this research, a mobile robot is controlled by the Intelligent Space through its resources. The mobile robot is controlled to follow walking human as stably and precisely as possible.

Human centered robotics in intelligent space

Foreign object debris (FOD) on airport runways must be removed immediately. To detect small debris, we proposed and developed an optically-connected distributed-type 96 GHz millimeter-wave radar system based on radio-over-fiber (RoF) technology and an optical fiber network. The proposed distributed-type radar system offers both improved FOD detection characteristics and cost performance. This paper details the design and field feasibility evaluation of the 96 GHz frequency-modulated continuous wave radar system that uses RoF and an optical frequency multiplier. Firstly, the problem of long distance RoF transmission, which limits the practical use of the RoF networked radar system in the airport environment, is discussed. Secondly, the concept and architecture of the millimeter-wave radar system are discussed and demonstrated focusing on its use in actual airports. Then, the results of a field experiment are shown to confirm the feasibility of the radar system. Finally, the effectiveness of the high-speed signal processing and generation circuits inside the central unit is evaluated at an actual airport based on the results of non-coherent and coherent signal integration.

Design and Field Feasibility Evaluation of Distributed-Type 96 GHz FMCW Millimeter-Wave Radar Based on Radio-Over-Fiber and Optical Frequency Multiplier

Robots would be able to coexist with humans and support humans effectively in near future. We proposed the intelligent space in order to achieve such human-centered system. The intelligent space is the space where many intelligent devices, such as computers and sensors, are distributed. The intelligent space achieves the human centered services by accelerating the physical and psychological interaction between humans and intelligent devices. As an intelligent device of the intelligent space, a color CCD camera module, which includes processing and networking part, has been chosen. The intelligent space requires functions of identifying and tracking the multiple objects to realize appropriate services to users under the multi-camera environments. In order to achieve seamless tracking and location estimation, many camera modules are distributed. They cause some errors about object identification among different camera modules. This paper describes appearance based object identification for the distributed vision system in intelligent space to achieve consistent labeling of unknown objects. First, we discuss how to obtain the object color information for constructing the color appearance based model. Then, we propose the global color model based on the color information for the object identification.

Kazuyuki Morioka

Papers

Human-following mobile robot in a distributed intelligent sensor network

Cooperation of distributed intelligent sensors in intelligent environment

Human centered robotics in intelligent space

Design and Field Feasibility Evaluation of Distributed-Type 96 GHz FMCW Millimeter-Wave Radar Based on Radio-Over-Fiber and Optical Frequency Multiplier

Appearance based object identification for distributed vision sensors in intelligent space