机器人的挑战和家务传感

　　机器人的挑战和家务传感

　　虽然许多流行科幻小说中的小玩意已经成为现实，比如移动通信、无人驾驶汽车和克隆，但在今天的家庭和办公室周围却缺少一个机器人助手。当然，许多房主会抓住机会，把重复的家务活卸到愿意的机器上。

　　许多家庭机器人的应用程序可以建议，但市场准备的产品已经缓慢前进。这样做的原因可能是，客户的要求没有得到充分的定义，或可接受的平衡之间的负担能力和功能还没有实现。这是开始改变，因为加工电源价格继续下跌。此外，小，低成本电脑板如circuitco比格板或Arduino板已成为广泛使用，机器人制造商社区在全世界都能吸引大量肥沃的思想，从而可能产生合适的平台，将在消费市场使商业意识创造了条件。

　　In fact， the first autonomous robots for the home have already arrived： at a price. Chores such as vacuuming floors and cutting grass can now be handed to machines capable of navigating their way throughout a room or lawn to clean or cut the entire area. A small robotic vacuum cleaner can now be bought for around $200， while robotic lawnmowers are newer arrivals in the market and priced at around $1200 or lower.

　　Hobby Robots Showing the Way Ahead

　　Robot kits for hobby builders are commercially available， such as the Parallax ActivityBot （Figure 1）， and the guidance techniques needed to enable a robot to do chores such as vacuuming or mowing are well developed and understood. These have been honed in robot design competitions such as the annual Nagoya International Micro Robot Maze Contest （MAZE）， which has been running since 1991.