Development of Mobile Robot Elevator Utility System

Abstract

This paper describes an elevator utility system that enables autonomous mobile robots to travel in office buildings. Attachments emulating the behavior of human fingers were developed to retrofit them to elevators without affecting elevators' inner workings. These attachments, consisting of button operation, controllers, and infrared ray communication, are remotely controlled by wireless commands from a robot. Mobile robots must use elevators without interfering with people using it, proposingcourses of robot action. A sensor system is presented for detecting people or objects in elevators. A prototype was developed, and its usefulness verified experimentally. The concept is expected to be useful for service robots working in office buildings.