Automation beyond Self-Driving - The Role of Automotive Service Robots for Automated Mobility Systems

The current developments in self-driving mobility systems create a need for automation, not only of the driving action itself, but also of all other tasks usually assigned to the driver. This need conveniently arises at a time where robotics seems to finally leave the production halls and arrive in the customer market under the label "service robotics". Already some applications and use-cases for these kinds of automation tasks exist, ranging from automated plugging for electric vehicles to logistics tasks, and are introduced in this paper. Furthermore, as this is a new, emerging field of research and development, a suitable ontology and terminology of this field is proposed to combine and consolidate research efforts. This class of robots, named Automotive Service Robots (ASR), which have a direct interaction with the vehicle itself, is of particular interest for automotive OEMs and is presented in this paper in further detail. Finally an outlook on possible future work in the field of ASR is presented.