Service robots, which are robots serving human needs beyond the factory floor, are playing an increasingly important role in many aspects of human life. These robots come in many designs and perform tasks that range from aerial surveillance, bomb disposal, farming, and warehouse logistics to teaching children and assisting the elderly. They use machine vision and image processing components, subsystems, and technologies to image, store, and interpret data about the world around them, and perform actions based on the data.
The Vision for Service Robots report from Vision Systems Design provides a comprehensive review of the technologies, markets, and opportunities for suppliers of vision components, the researchers and integrators who are building service robots, and companies and organizations interested in entering the market. This groundbreaking 120-page report is based on extensive interviews and original research compiled over eight months by Adil Shafi, well-known authority on service robots and president of Advenovation. It includes a global forecast that identifies multiple near-term market opportunities for vision components and systems totaling several billion dollars, and opportunities in the longer term that promise to be even greater. View a PDF of the report’s table of contents.
Many countries and regions are avidly fostering research and development in this field. They are doing so because, while industrial robots are sold in the tens of thousands per year, service robots will offer a volume of unit sales ultimately in the millions. Many of the companies, university labs, and government organizations developing service robots believe that vision will provide a critical technical and market advantage. The Vision for Service Robots report includes an extensive directory of organizations involved in service robot manufacturing, research and development as well as an overview of their projects and links to key resources and websites.
With the exceptions of many toys and simple domestic robots such as vacuuming robots, the majority of service robots require some sort of vision system. The related components, subsystems, and software range from simple 2-D CMOS sensors to complex subsystems capable of 3-D imaging and pattern recognition. The vision software needed to understand these images and provide robotic feedback is complex and evolving rapidly.
Some of the primary vision technologies used in service robots are: structured light systems, two-camera stereo systems, time-of-flight sensors, lidar, and single-lens camera systems. Other sensing/locating technologies may be combined with the vision components to provide even more information to the robots, including GPS navigation, radar, sonar, and inertial guidance. For more sophisticated robots, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is critical to build maps of unknown environments or to update maps within known environments, while at the same time keeping track of the current location of the robot.
This is an exciting and dynamic time for service robots. With the help of machine vision, these robots are gaining widespread commercial and personal acceptance as they assist humans in almost every aspect of life.
Summary of Market Opportunities Detailed in the Report
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The Vision for Service Robots report divides the market opportunities and global forecast for vision into three sections that include details on 17 markets and 53 submarkets:
Aerospace Applications
• Spacecraft (robotic spacecraft; autonomous vehicles (rovers))
• Satellites
• Aircraft (unmanned drones for surveillance, combat, research; refueling robots aboard aircraft
(airborne, including UAV to UAV refueling); resupplying robots aboard aircraft carriers; MAVs and flying swarms
for reconnaissance)
Land Applications
• Defense and Security (surveillance, EOD, combat, transport (military UGVs); surveillance (civilian);
explosive or hazard disposal (civilian); explosive or hazard disposal (de-mining); firefighting, law enforcement)
• Farming (ground-based farming, livestock management, harvesting; tree-based produce retrieval ; feeding
and cleaning in zoos; wildlife conservation)
• Food Processing (dairy: milking and cleaning; meat: processing; poultry: chicken and egg handling;
fruit and vegetable handling and sorting)
• Transportation (assistive: cars, trucks; autonomous or Following: cars, trucks)
• Mining, Construction, Maintenance (under- and aboveground mining; construction and demolition
(including nuclear); roads and highways construction and maintenance; railway operations; facilities and
plants inspection and maintenance; runways and gates at airports; ports, docks, locks and canals (including
logistics); nuclear operations, inspection)
• Office and Warehouse (mobile: communications, telepresence; mobile: delivery, courier (includes hospitals);
warehousing logistics
• Health: Care (assistive: reach and access, switching positions, wheelchairs, walking; diagnostics (scanning
robots or automated scan-based robotic motion); telepresence: roaming doctor, tracking, doctor-patient
interaction; logistics
• Health: Rehabilitation (locomotion: exertive strength or walking balance; retraining: hand-eye retraining
with: 1) force or 2) vision)
• Health: Surgical
• Education and Entertainment (educational and research; toys; kiosk/marketing; coasters/rides)
• Home: Convenience (cleaning roof, gutters, driveway, pool, lawn, snow, windows, walls, floors; mobile robot
helper, companion (wheeled, humanoid); home surveillance and security)
Water Applications
• Defense and Security (surface: mine countermeasures, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance,
anti-submarine missions, harbor inspection, law enforcement, and naval logistics and support; underwater:
mine countermeasures, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, anti-submarine missions, harbor inspection,
search and rescue, and naval logistics and support)
• Commercial (ROVs: offshore oil and gas drilling, construction, inspection, maintenance, repair, salvage and
retrieval (for work after identification), cleaning and containment of spills; AUVs: offshore oil and gas
inspection, maintenance, salvage and retrieval (for identification), inspection of aqueducts, sewers)
• Scientific (ROVs: research marine environment, AUVs: research marine environment)
