Hobbies And Interests
Daily Chores
Personal service robots can take the drudgery out of everyday tasks in the home or office. Vacuum cleaning robots, for example, convert information they receive from their environment through sensors into control commands. The control commands, in turn, allow them to navigate around a two-dimensional space without bumping into obstacles and obstructions. Similarly, security robots can detect their own position and relay images back to a human operator in a remote location.
Mundane Tasks
In any work environment, human workers typically prefer tasks that require intelligence and initiative to those that don't. Many "dumb" but nonetheless important tasks can be delegated to professional service robots. Transporting materials, such as packages, medicines and supplies, often can be performed more precisely and reliably by professional service robots than by human workers. Professional service robots, of course, have no boredom threshold and, unlike human workers, don't suffer from lapses of concentration when repeating the same task over and over again.
Dangerous Tasks
In addition to dull, unsatisfying tasks, service robots can also perform tasks that are unpleasant or hazardous to human beings. Typical examples include bomb disposal robots, pipe inspection and cleaning robots and underwater robots, all of which can be controlled remotely without any risk to human operators. Service robots can also be used to investigate industrial accidents, such as those in nuclear or chemical plants, but their electronics must be resistant to any hazardous materials that the robot is likely to encounter.
Assistive Robots
Service robots can also assist elderly or disabled people. Intelligent service robots can, in some cases, replace human caretakers and may provide better service than their human counterparts. An elderly or disabled person can ask a service robot for assistance in personal activities, such as using the restroom, without embarrassment. Service robots can also help therapists to deliver therapies, such as physiotherapy, to elderly or disabled people, or victims of stroke. Rehabilitation following stroke is typically time-consuming and labor-intensive for both the patient and the therapist, but the process can be made significantly less arduous by using a service robot, under the supervision of the therapist.