GENERAL OBJECTIVE OF URUS PROJECT

The general objective of this project is the development of new ways of cooperation between network robots and human beings and/or the environment in urban areas, in order to achieve tasks that in the other way can be very complex, time consuming or too costly. For example, the cooperation between robots and video cameras can solve surveillance problems in urban areas, or the cooperation between robots and wireless communication devices can help people in several ways. The focus of the project is in urban pedestrian areas, an important topic in Europe where there exists a growing interest in reducing the number of cars in the streets and improving the quality of life. Network robots can be an important instrument to improve these issues in the cities.

Network robots is a new concept that integrates robots, sensors, communications and mobile devices in a cooperative way, which means not only a physical interconnection between these elements, but also, for example, the development of novel intelligent methods of cooperation for task oriented purposes, new communication languages between the different elements, or new mobility methods using the ubiquity of sensors and robots. We have identified several well defined scientific and technological challenges, when thinking on network robots for urban areas, which have been taken into account to define the objectives of this project.

The objectives of this project are the following ones:

1. A scientific and technological objective: Develop an adaptable cognitive network robot architecture which integrates the following functionalities (sub-objectives)
a. Cooperative localisation and navigation.
b. Cooperative environment perception.
c. Cooperative map building and updating.
d. Human robot interaction.
e. Multi-task negotiation.
f. Wireless communication with hand held devices, ubiquitous sensors, and other robots.

2. An experiment objective: Test the cognitive network robot architecture in two different urban tasks :
a. Guiding and transportation of people and goods.
b. Surveillance.