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      Care-O-Bot Robot Does Chores One-Handed 
	   
       
      
        
      
    Care-o-Bot shown below is the third generation of prototype household help robots from Fraunhofer IPA.
  
  
(Care-o-Bot)
 
Care-O-bot®3 has an omnidirectional 
platform, with four steered and driven 
wheels. This kinematic system enables 
the robot to move in any desired direc- 
tion and therefore also safely to nego- 
tiate narrow passages.
Care-O-bot®3 is equipped with a highly 
flexible, commercial arm with seven 
degrees of freedom as well as with a 
three-finger hand. This makes it capable 
of gripping and operating a large 
number of different everyday objects. 
A force-torque sensor provides the 
robot with feedback from its environ- 
ment as well as from the humans with 
whom it is interacting. 
 
“We see Care-o-bot as a household device, not as a substitute for a human helper. Also, we have experienced that a humanoid look also leads to high expectations about the capabilities of the robot,” said Birgit Graf (who heads the domestic and personal service robotics group at IPA) who says that the robot is simply supposed to “care” for people—not take the place of a real person. “Basically, people expect it to be able to do everything that a human is able to do. However, the system is still specialized for the execution of selected household tasks.”
  
I can't quite figure out why you wouldn't want two arms on this robot. Unless, of course, you were concerned that you might one day need to fight it.
 
Sounds like Heinlein's Flexible Frank to me: "Just what did I want Flexible Frank to do? Answer: any work a human being does around a house..."
 
Care-o-Bot has some competition; see these general household robots:
 
    - Twendy-One Robot Is Your Humanoid Helper 
  
    - REEM-B Robot Autonomous Helper Video 
 
From Care-o-Bot at Fraunhofer IPA and Reuters; thanks to Moira for the tip on this one.  
    Scroll down  for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/14/2008)  
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