1.0 Introduction
A robot can be defined as an embodied “reprogrammable multifunctional manipulator” containing “sensors, effectors, memory, and some real-time computational apparatus” (Sheridan, 1992, pp. 3-4). Initially, robots were designed to perform tasks that are menial, repetitive, or dangerous for human beings. For instance, robots in factories assemble the same parts on a car repetitively for long periods of time and robots used by military to defuse bombs or monitor dangerous territory. However, with advancing technology together with researches, robots are now being developed to be introduced into household. Such robots are created with the aim of interacting with and assisting people in daily tasks. To do so, they are equipped with
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However, healthcare robots that only support elderly or handicapped is not enough but a solution to help the caretakers is needed. Labor shortage in healthcare sectors has been observed in quite a lot of countries all around the world, which is due to increasing costs and/or decreasing budgets (Köhler and Goldmann, 2010). This lead to higher workloads for caretakers and eventually causes them to be involve in physical problems as well as long-term health issues. In this case, healthcare robots may overcome this problem by improving the working conditions and allowing human beings to take rest from overload caring works.
Then, Riba, the carrying robot is introduced by RIKEN, a national research institute in Japan. Riba functions by carrying a patient when nurses control them by using touch-sensors on it. Riba’s arm has six joints, each driven by six motors which operate in pairs to enable combined bending and twisting motions. Caretakers can safely move a person up to 80kg with the assist of Riba. It identifies target’s face by using visual data from stereo cameras and localize the position of a speaker’s voice with built-in