Companion robot for personal interaction

摘要

A mobile robot guest for interacting with a human resident performs a room-traversing search procedure prior to interacting with the resident, and may verbally query whether the resident being sought is present. Upon finding the resident, the mobile robot may facilitate a teleconferencing session with a remote third party, or interact with the resident in a number of ways. For example, the robot may carry on a dialog with the resident, reinforce compliance with medication or other schedules, etc. In addition, the robot incorporates safety features for preventing collisions with the resident; and the robot may audibly announce and/or visibly indicate its presence in order to avoid becoming a dangerous obstacle. Furthermore, the mobile robot behaves in accordance with an integral privacy policy, such that any sensor recording or transmission must be approved by the resident.

主权项

1. A robot for regimen compliance management, comprising:
a processor; a memory accessible by the processor that includes personal medication dosage information; a sensor capable of detecting the presence of a person within a detection range of the robot; a communication interface capable of generating a human-perceptible signal and receiving a compliance or non-compliance indication from the person; a drive operatively connected to the processor that moves the robot; a person-finding routine executable on the processor that instructs the drive to move the robot about the household checking the sensor for the presence of the person and to stop in a position next to the person; a scheduler routine executable on the processor that checks the personal medication dosage information for medication events, and when a medication event is anticipated, initiates the person-finding routine with enough time in advance of the medication event to traverse the household in time for the medication event; and a matching routine executable on the processor that sends a human perceptible signal to the person including information regarding the location of medication to be taken and guides the person to the medication.