Care-o-bot 3 - Rationale for human-robot interaction design

This paper presents the design rationale for a new service robot, Care-O-bot 3 that is meant to operate as a companion robot in people's homes. Note, the emphasis in the paper is on the design of a companion robot as a product, not as a research prototype. The design is motivated from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint and compared to other approaches in the field which often focus on a humanoid appearance. In this paper we put forward an abstract design with iconic features. We argue that such a more 'technomorphic' design may be appealing to a potentially large user group. Potential target user groups of the robot are identified. The realization of such a design, including details on the robots mobile base and torso, manipulator, sensors, and remote interfaces are presented in the paper.