IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2013 - 18

an idea of what it means to design a
competitive and viable service robotic
application. By
"competitive
and viable serWhile much
vice robotic
of the heavy
application,"
we mean a
industrial robotics
robot system
implementations
for a specific
service task
remains directly
that survives a
imported, a grassroots/
24/7 operation
and is competindigenous roboticsitive with an
manufacturing industry
existing service provided
is also forming to fill
by hu m an s
the void in the
that does not
involve robotrobotics ecosystem.
ics technology.
In the contest,
we were offered full-fledged humanoids serving as human companions,
robo-cops regulating the traffic in

construction sites along a highway, and
many more "phantastic" service robots,
all for less than 1,000 EUR. This raises
a fundamental question: Is such a lack
of realism a problem, and if so, for
whom is it a problem and whose fault
is it?
If it is a problem, then it is a problem
for our Societies. We educate young
engineers without providing them with
a sense of what it really means "to ease
the life of humankind," and what a taxpayer may consider as ease. If the lack of
realism is a problem, then it is certainly
not the fault of the students, it is the
fault of their teachers.
The following extensions to the
curriculum of master's courses in intelligent systems and robotics might help
to sharpen the students' sense for what
it means to design and commercialize
a service robot. We propose to add
some of the following (elective)
courses and (long-)term projects to the
existing curricula:

courses (elective)
*	 system design
*	 robotic product design
*	 robot economics
● projects
*	 market analysis for a service
robotic application
*	 business plan for a robotic startup
*	 development of a full-fledged service robot application.
The "System Design" course should
address issues such as model-driven
engineering, component-based
design, fault-tolerant design methods,
technology readiness levels, and methodologies for system maturation. The
"Robotics Product Design" course
should involve issues such as basic
design methodology, morphology,
actuation principles, manufacturing,
and rapid prototyping. In the "Robot
Economics" course, the students
should learn the basics of business
administration needed for starting a
business in robotics. This course
should further enable the students to
realistically evaluate markets and the
economic potential of service robot
applications. Like the courses, the
projects listed above are just examples.
They should help the students to turn
their theoretical knowledge into practice. More business-oriented projects
such as "Market Analysis for a Service
Robotic Application" or "Business
Plan for a Robotic Startup" could be
individual term projects, while the
development of a full-fledged service
robot application could be a team
project extending over several terms
with dedicated roles and assignments
of the team members.
●

Adjustments in Robotics
Research Roadmaps
Today, robotic research results do not
seem to easily find their way into service
robotics products. This is certainly due
to the different nature of the application
domains and operating conditions of
service robots compared with industrial
robots. Industrial robots operate in static
environments behind fences performing
repetitive tasks. Service, robots operate
in human-inhabited, possibly crowded,
and highly dynamic environments,
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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

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DECEMBER 2013
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2013
