Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Künstl Intell (2017) 31:299–304 DOI 10.1007/s13218-017-0492-x RESEARCH PROJECT The Cognitive Service Robotics Apartment A Versatile Environment for Human–Machine Interaction Research Sebastian Wrede 1  · Christian Leichsenring 1  · Patrick Holthaus 1  · Thomas Hermann 1  · Sven Wachsmuth 1  · The CSRA Team 1 Published online: 11 July 2017 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 of homes into smart homes that are responsive to the pres- ence of people and ofer assistance, increase security, enhance comfort or avoid unnecessary energy consump- tion. In this context we established the cognitive service robotics apartment (CSRA) as a smart environment which (1) ofers a densely equipped sensor- and actuator network embedding virtual agents and a mobile robot to facilitate personalized and situation-aware interaction integrated in a homogeneous service-oriented software architecture, (2) enables and actively exploits 24/7 operation so that the sys- tem can be used, or learn by itself from many interaction episodes, and (3) provides a basis for quantitative and qual- itative research under controlled conditions with automatic recording and post-processing of experimental data. In comparison to other approaches (cf. [9] for a recent survey) an important aspect of our work is to consider the role and interplay of embodied interaction devices with smart environments and their users. For this reason, the CSRA features an anthropomorphic mobile service robot. In addition to its assumed role as preferred agent for mediating interaction with the smart environment, the semi-autonomous robot exceeds the modes of assistance beyond what could be realized by a smart (even actuated) apartment alone. Furthermore, the apartment and robot are weakly coupled systems which can operate independently, yet can explore synergies by cooperating with each other. Hence, the CSRA enables us to do research on the full scale from disembodied to embodied and even anthropo- morphic human-machine interaction and how these might work together. Exemplary questions addressed inside the lab are: what kind of interfaces are best suited to enable specifc functions of a smart home or mobile robot, how do users address these functions, what needs do actually arise at the user level, and how can approaches to satisfy them be taken up and used? Abstract The emergence of cognitive interaction technol- ogy ofering intuitive and personalized support for humans in daily routines is essential for the success of future smart environments. Social robotics and ambient assisted liv- ing are well-established, active research felds but in the real world the number of smart environments that support humans efciently on a daily basis is still rather low. We argue that research on ambient intelligence and human– robot interaction needs to be conducted in a strongly inter- disciplinary process to facilitate seamless integration of assistance technologies into the users daily lives. With the cognitive service robotics apartment (CSRA), we are devel- oping a novel kind of laboratory following this interdisci- plinary approach. It combines a smart home with ambient intelligence functionalities with a cognitive social robot with advanced manipulation capabilities to explore the all day use of cognitive interaction technology for human assistance. This lab in conjunction with our develop- ment approach opens up new lines of inquiry and allows us to address new research questions in human–machine, human–agent and human–robot interaction Keywords Smart environments · Social robotics · Human–machine interaction · Ubiquitous computing 1 Introduction With microelectronics increasingly pervading our living spaces and homes we currently witness the transformation * Sebastian Wrede swrede@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de 1 CITEC, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany