IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2012 - 18

Looking back, I have to say that
only seven years after the foundation
of Universal Robots, I am very proud
that our vision of an affordable robot
has already become a reality. We even
won the Invention and Entrepreneurship Award at the 2012 exhibition,

"Automatica!" Of course, we are not
resting on our laurels now. In the near
future we are going to expand our
presence in to the North American
and Eastern European market. Also,
one thing is clear: we will always stick
to our mission and teach companies

all over the world our new approach to
robots. Even small companies can use
robots-we want to demonstrate to
them that a robot can be very flexible
and a helpful tool, rather than a
machine that takes away the job of a
human.

High Tech, Low Sales!
By Erwin Prassler

fter 25+ years of research and
development in service robotics,
it sounds like mantra when
members of the robotics
community praise and bless the results
of their work as a remedy for many of
the inconveniences of daily life. It seems,
however, that mankind today does not
suffer from fewer inconveniences than it
did 20 years ago, but rather more.
Robotics also hasn't done much to
change that. If every promise to "make
life easier" made in these past 25 years
had been turned into a real service
robot product, we would almost live
in paradise.
Unfortunately, robotized paradise
still seems to lie some ways ahead of
us. Admittedly, there are some devices
that have been on the market for a
while, which at times call themselves
service robots: robotic floor cleaners,
pool cleaners, lawn movers, and some
toy robots. But is that it? What is
beyond that? Anything that is of use
to regular citizens which they may be
able to buy? Will we soon be surrounded by hundreds or thousands of
personal robots, which are omniscient
universal problem solvers and servile
providers of everyday services? Will
we be served by robot butlers, treated
by robotic nurses, entertained by
robotic clowns, and consoled by
robotic friends?
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2012.2230557
Date of publication: 6 December 2012

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

Never say never! But honestly, are
we really willing to spend the budget
for a sports car or more to buy a
robot, and if so, do we really want a
robot to become our friend? Doesn't
that sound a bit insane? Why not
choose the sports car as a friend?
Cynical statements aside, the
question is, where is robotics research
heading and, in particular, where is
that branch of robotics research
heading that deals with nonindustrial
robots, often called service robotics?
Does this branch have only visions
like the one of a personal robot or a
robot companion, or does it also have
an agenda that links basic research to
products on the shelves in warehouses, or at least indicate that such a
link is feasible?
Taxpayers don't want to give their
hard-earned money away for visions,
neither for political nor for technical
ones. They expect affordable, useful
devices that ease their lives either at
work or at home, and they expect
publically funded research to eventually generate new industries and new
markets offering them new interesting jobs. We are not talking about
high-tech robots that explore Mars,
assist in surgeries, or populate battlefields. We are talking about robots
that ease the life of mankind in everyday environments.
It can hardly be explained to the
taxpayers that 25 years of research
has not led to more than some

DECEMBER 2012

robotic lawn mowers, floor cleaners,
pool cleaners, and toys. In spite of
the outstanding achievements that
robotics research has made in the
past 25 years in the area of service
robotics, it seems that robotic
research either needs to recalibrate
its promises, its research agenda, or
both. A good starting point for such
a recalibration is a root cause analysis of the current situation.
One obvious major reason for the
rather modest transfer of robotics
technology into consumer products is
the fact that system design, system
building, and system integration targeting a concrete product idea all too
often is not considered robotics
research. One can rarely find publications on new, economically competitive robot applications. So, for a Ph.D.
student or an assistant professor
working toward tenure, there is no
good reason to waste his or her time
on system design. What makes things
worse is the fact that designing a
complete system or a complete application takes significantly more effort
in terms of time and other costs than
designing a new algorithm. Also, it
requires a broad range of interdisciplinary knowledge ranging from
mechanical and mechatronic engineering, electrical engineering, control theory, software engineering, and
computer science in general, to artificial intelli-gence and cognitive sciences. It is very rare that one single

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2012