Realization of safety in a coexistent robotic system by information sharing

For service robots working in human coexisting environments, safety is an important issue. To realize the safety, physical and intelligent augmentations should be introduced to the coexistent robot. The key point of the intelligent augmentation is information sharing between the robot and the person. There are two aspects in the information sharing: 1) information about the place where the robot will perform the task and subtasks; and 2) information about the event what the robot will perform as the task and subtasks. The robot should inform the coexisting person of both of these aspects of the task information. We propose a projection function as a means of information sharing about the place. A voice message synthesizer is used for the information sharing about the event. Details of the construction of an experimental system and the experiments are described.