Ranger, an Example of Integration of Robotics into the Home Ecosystem Francesco Mondada 1 , Julia Fink 2 , S´ everin Lemaignan 2 , David Mansolino 3 , Florian Wille 4 , and Karmen Franinovi´ c 4 1 Laboratoire de syst` emes robotiques (LSRO) 2 Computer-Human Interaction in Learning and Instruction Laboratory (CHILI) 3 Distributed Intelligent Systems and Algorithms Laboratory (DISAL) Ecole Polytechnique F´ ed´ erale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 4 Z¨ urcher Hochschule der K¨ unste (ZHdK), Z¨ urich, Switzerland Abstract. This paper presents the concept and an example of robject, a robotic entity embedded in an everyday object. Robjects use the affor- dance of the original object to ensure an efficient interaction and a high acceptance. The example of the ranger robot shows that this approach can be applied to the domestic environment. We explore the integration of a robot (robject ) into a family household, by regarding the home as a ecosystem, which consists of people, parts, products, activities, and interactions. A test of the ranger robot in families validates this holistic approach and shows the impact of this type of design in respect to the complexity of the robotic system. Keywords: holistic approach, ecosystem, cooperation with humans, do- mestic service robots, robject, ranger robot 1 Introduction Since years, predictions say service robotics will massively enter in every home [1]. In Europe, a large survey made in 2012 shows a general public perception which is still not very open to home service robotics. Robots are perceived as a good tool mainly for dangerous tasks [2]. In the same survey, a majority of people thinks robots should be banned from typical home service scenarios that include children, elderly or disabled care. Only 13% of the European citizen think robots should be applied in priority to “domestic use, such as cleaning”. Also among researchers it has not been clear what a robot exactly should do in homes [3]. Pantofaru et al. [3] explored the role of robots in home organization (tidying, storing), and found that robots could have a potentially high impact on this. Similarly, Bell et al. [4] suggest that robots could be used in tidying up scenarios in the domestic environment. Although only few such systems have entered the consumer market, several researchers took advantage of these few success and studied the acceptance of robotics technology by the users. Bauwens et al. [5] showed that the main fac- tors impacting the adoption of robotics at home are, from the most to the less important: