Last changed: 3 Dec 2005

Perception of Space and Various Purely Spatial Entities

Fido, the domestic robot will have to learn about space on different scales, with different properties, and ideally should be able to understand how they are related. This will include being able to see various kinds of spaces, routes, gaps, boundaries etc.

For a brief overview see this file.

Perception of spaces will be required for tasks such as

finding places to put things,
planning routes, for the whole robot to move through, or for a hand to move through as it goes to grasp an object, or for a held or pushed object that is to be moved from one location to another on a table top, or for an item of furniture that is to be moved from one room to another, or an item of crockery that is to be moved into the dishwasher.
it may also be necessary to plan routes for an incapacitated human, e.g. someone visually impaired or who is being moved in a wheelchair
executing plans including
- controlling movements of the whole robot as it goes through doors, corridors, gaps between furniture items, etc., or
- controlling movements of held objects being manipulated during preparation of food, feeding cleaning up, etc.