Integration of the Humanoid Robot Nao inside a Smart Home: A Case Study Athanasia Louloudi, Ahmed Mosallam, Naresh Marturi, Pieter Janse and Victor Hernandez School of Science and Technology Örebro University, Sweden 701 82 <first name>.<last name>h081@student.oru.se April 26, 2010 Abstract This paper presents a case study demonstrat- ing the integration of the humanoid robotic platform Nao within a Network Robot System (NRS) application. The specific scenario of in- terest takes place in a smart home environment; the task being that of bringing a can of soda from a fridge to a human user. We use this con- crete scenario to evaluate how the performance of such a robot can be affected by being embed- ded inside an intelligent domestic environment. This study points out that, by cooperating with different components on the network the over- all performance of the robot is increased. Keywords: Network Robotics Systems, Do- mestic Robots, Nao robot, Smart home, PEIS- Ecology. 1 Introduction A few years ago, the idea of living with robots, sharing everyday tasks and harmonically co- exist in the same environment, seemed to be a distant scenario. However, the use of such technologies, aimed to inhabit our houses and help us with our everyday chores is not a dream any longer. Ongoing research all over the world indicates a trend to develop advanced robotic systems aimed to the service of people in need. According to the International Federation of Robotics, 7.1 million service robots for personal and private use were sold by the end of 2009 and 11.6 million is anticipated to be sold by 2012. 1 The rapid growth in the field of robotics during the last decade provided a strong foundation for smart homes and sensor networks. A Smart home is a domestic intelligent en- vironment where various components such as a fridge, oven, lights etc., are working together by exchanging information via the same local network. The principal idea behind the smart home concept is to use NRS techniques to in- tegrate different services within the home in an effort to control and monitor the entire living space [1]. NRS can provide robot based ser- vices to improve care cost and the quality of life in smart homes. These services are not realized by a single stand-alone robot but by a combina- tion of different elements such as environmental sensors, cameras, laser range scanners and hu- mans communicating and cooperating through a network. In a stand-alone robot, all the sensorial and computational capabilities are self contained. In the context of a NRS, a stand-alone robot is perceived as part of the ecology itself [2], [3]. Moreover, it can be beneficiated by the flux of information coming from other devices con- nected to the same network, for example, a 1 International Federation of Robotics, Executive Summary of World Robotics 2009. See http://www. ifr.org/service-robots/statistics/ 35