Madrid Opts for Robotics for Its Citizens Services
From: Carlos III University of Madrid (Spain) - 01/12/2011

The Autonomous Community of Madrid is sponsoring Robocity2030, a consortium
aimed at developing new applications for service robots to help improve
humans' quality of life. The group is led by Universidad Carlos III de
Madrid's Carlos Balaguer, and includes more than 60 PhDs and 100 researchers.
The project has already yielded Asibot, an intelligent domestic robot that
can help the disabled and the elderly live alone without human assistance.
The robot can climb on vertical surfaces and perform preprogrammed tasks, but
the researchers are working on developing new systems so the robot can
complete tasks on its own. The robot can lift up to 4.4 pounds, but only
weighs about 22 pounds. The Robocity2030 project focuses on developing robots
for quality of life in open environments and quality of life in closed
environments. The open environment robots are designed to improve
infrastructures to enhance citizen safety. The closed environment robots are
designed to make people's everyday life easier in homes and offices. "From a
technological point of view, the challenge is to make the systems much more
user friendly, much sturdier, and obviously, much more affordable," Balaguer
says.  

Read the entire article at:
http://www.uc3m.es/portal/page/portal/actualidad_cientifica/noticias/robotics_services

Links:
Robocity2030
http://roboticslab.uc3m.es/roboticslab/proyecto.php?id_proy=21

Carlos Balaguer
http://roboticslab.uc3m.es/roboticslab/persona.php?id_pers=2

Asibot
http://roboticslab.uc3m.es/roboticslab/robot.php?id_robot=3