Review Article
Norma Elva Chavez, Saiph Sa
Abstract
Most service robots are simple and domestic, functioning only within Wi-Fi enabled homes. Service robots that do function outdoors are usually expensive and consequently foreign to the general public. To provide service robots to everyone, everywhere, we present Nokovic, a low cost service robot built with recycled parts based on FPGA and radio frequency control that recognizes outdoor and indoor human activity to engage with humans in any environment. By building off recycled pieces, Nokovic reduces the costs to construct the recycled robot. Nokovic also implements a novel low cost human activity recognition system that further helps to reduce the resources needed for the service robot to function anywhere. We establish our human activity recognition system by using a histogram of oriented gradients to create two shape based object classes: bikers and walkers, which our system distinguishes from. We study how our human activity recognition method compares with traditional activity recognition classifiers. Based on our design and study, we reflect on the future of low cost service robots for outdoor and indoor activities.