Robotics and Autonomous Systems 79 (2016) 99–107

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Robotics and Autonomous Systems

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/robot

Design in robotics based in the voice of the customer of household robots Rafael Mateo Ferrús ∗, Manuel Domínguez Somonte Ingeniería del Diseño, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia — UNED, Madrid, Spain h i g h l i g h t s

• The state of the art in welfare-oriented and robots are analyzed. • Customer requirements for welfare-oriented and housekeeping robots are analyzed. • Customer needs are transferred to a design features for reaching large masses. • Definition of priorities and design inputs for housekeeping robots. • List of design features for welfare-oriented robots for care of elderly with dementia. article info a b s t r a c t

Article history: The aim of this study is the analysis of the state of the art in consumer robotics dedicated to personal care Received 25 June 2015 and housekeeping, for further critical analysis of it. After interviewing different users we will follow a Received in revised form methodology to find the voice of the customer. From these interviews we get the customer’s needs which 1 November 2015 will be structured and ordered in a hierarchy that will help us to set the priorities, concluding with the Accepted 11 January 2016 design requirements and the basic features that the robot must have. Available online 10 February 2016 © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Tele-assistance Dementia Tele-care Housekeeping Voice of the customer Robot

1. Introduction and improve the mechanical, electronic and programming devel- opment of open robotic platforms, where most of the knowledge In the last 50 years the development of robots in industry has and progress made in the robot is shared. been significant and has great expectations of exponential growth But the presence of large robot consumption in present human in the coming years [1]. life is focusing on the domestic sphere (personal and service) The wide variety of existing robots of complex design with expectations of exponential growth [1]. Financial turnover in and manufacturing, are usually for the development of heavy, robotics in 2013 was $13,000 million of which $8500 million were complicated, repetitive or at high-speed tasks; exempting humans from sales of industrial robots and $4500 million were invoiced from them, increasing industrial productivity, economic benefit, from sales of household robots [3]. job security and improving the quality of life of society in general. Another variety of high-tech robots are robots for naval, space We are currently observing that the robot’s interaction with or research purposes. These robots require complex analysis of the humans is limited to the performance objective of the robot, while functional requirements and goals of the design, being essentially the human being, despite the functional limitations of the robot, the robot itself a research and development project in most cases. develops an emotional and personal interrelation with the robot. Open source platforms like Willow Garage [2] and similar in- The aim of this study is to analyze the state of art in designing vite the community of engineering and programming to evaluate a robot for the household sector. Later, this information will be complemented with the analysis of design requirements by studying the customer’s voice, to be able to transfer these features ∗ Corresponding author. to a lean design and thus achieve a robust, functional, economic E-mail address: [email protected] (R. Mateo Ferrús). and safe design of robot that can reach large masses. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2016.01.010 0921-8890/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 100 R. Mateo Ferrús, M. Domínguez Somonte / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 79 (2016) 99–107

The essential functions of a basic robot would be the cleaning • Detection: Having the ability to detect in which part of the and hygiene of the house floor in an autonomous way, free of image the object is located. In most situations, large parts of the intervention of the user. Other useful functions would be the the image are occupied by objects that introduce unwanted telecare for the elderly, providing company and control of their background information that can confuse the object recognition vital signs, and house’s monitoring. These are the requirements of method. the present society for the new generation of robots. • Rating: A convenient capacity for object detection method A robot that meets all these features in order to fulfill these is to be able to generalize and recognize previously unseen functions at an affordable cost does not currently exist. In either instances. case there are robots with similar characteristics and functions • Occlusions: Usually the object to be recognized is not available separately, but with all that do not completely fulfill each and every for the robot. An object recognition method must be able to one of the requirements found in this article. handle partial object information. • Texture: The rich texture objects are often easier to recognize 2. Analysis of the state of the art that them that only are defined by its shape and color. The behavior of each method with both types of objects will be Bram Hendriks et al. [4] reported, in a study on personality and considered. behavior of the vacuum cleaning robots, the kind of personality • Repetitive patterns: In some objects, like a chessboard, that the customer would like the robot to have. The same study repetitive patterns cause problems in recognition methods that found that as people recognize the behavior of his vacuum robot have a data association phase. and recommends the use of a personality model as a for • Resolution set: Large images generate more features at different developing robot behavior. scales (especially for the little ones), they are certainly useful for Fig. 1 expresses the flow analysis of personality imprinted in robot design, morphology and behavior and how the behavior of object recognition. However, if the training images have a much the robot is perceived as a personality by the user in response to higher resolution than in the test image descriptors may be very the experience enjoyed therewith. different. It is suggested in this study that the development of the robot Ja-Young Sung et al. in their study ‘‘My Roomba is Rambo’’ [13] has to serve anthropomorphic aspects, i.e. the attribution of human suggest four design implications in domestic robots (form related characteristics to non-human qualities, describing personality to function and intimacy through ambiguity, accountability five-factor model, such as neuroticism, extraversion, openness to and support) that could increase people’s enthusiasm towards experience, kindness and conscientiousness. domestic robots and smart homes, since observed the behavior The studies conducted showed that people prefer more of the users vacuum cleaning robot from iRobot company seeing friendly and extroverted personalities rather than introverted and increased the pleasure of cleaning and even domestic users came formal [5]. to adapt their homes to use the robot. Although a robot with The preliminary design analysis and the search for the future human facets awakens greater attachment, it has been shown that questions by analyzing the voice of the customer, are set to perform different designs from living things is also achieved a high degree two steps in the study. The first is the investigation of what kind of attachment and people may even be more comfortable at home, of personality we want the robot to have according to Norman so suggest that humanoid or animal forms are not necessary to DA [6] and the second part of the study is to investigate how people experience the personality of the robot and how it by man awaken a strong attachment to the device and this opens up many is perceived as models identified by JE Young and others [7]. design possibilities. Therefore, if we consider a priori the development of a robot Scholtz’s work [14] on the conceptual design of intelligent not only we will have to take into account the mechanical and systems adds that ‘‘The design should be aesthetic and minimalist’’. electrical design of it, but also the anthropomorphic design and This must be the principle design of robots for use in homes, such equip it with items that will bring it personality to ensure that we as the Roomba, i.e., having a simple user interface to maintain a will understand well the robot and we will trust it, considering the low cost robot while we get a simple use. Scholtz also suggests personality characteristics that people use every day to describe that developers should make the architecture scalable and support people and also products [8]. the development of platforms to prevent the robot will become Antonuccio, RS et al. [9] propose to explore and analyze the obsolete in a short period of time. role of industrial design in consumer robotics since it is an area In addition to the design suggestions of different authors where design and specifically industrial design can be used to analyzed, the international standard ISO 13482:2014 specifies create innovative and unique robots that would be functional, requirements and guidelines for safe design, providing protection aesthetically pleasing, with a strong element of human interface, measures and information for the use of robots for personal or that would be also easy to use [10] and that have a good correlation custodial care, and in particular the three types of robots: between functions and cost of the robot to be widely accepted by • the consumer. Within the industrial design of the robot, colors, Mobile service robot. • materials and physical attributes of a product affect the way the Physical assistance robot. • consumer perceives it [11]. Both the colors and materials will help Robot transport people. us emphasize the physical attributes of the robot, depending on the The standard describes the risks associated with the use of personality traits that we want to attribute it. these robots and provides requirements to eliminate or reduce Another factor that should define the mechanical design of these risks to an acceptable level. This standard also covers the the robot would be to take into account a vision-based and self applications of physical contact with the robots. location systems that would meet the different requirements for recognition. Basically the three qualities of the artificial visioning • Presents likewise significant hazards and risks describing how system are recognition, classification and object detection [12]. to treat them for each type of assistive robot. Depending on the purpose of the robot we have to choose the • Covers robotic devices for use in personal care applications type of recognition algorithm and the appropriate hardware. These which are treated as personal care robots. two points will affect the mechanical design of the robot. The • Is limited to non-flying robots. algorithms used are commonly evaluated by Arnau Ramisa et al. [9] • It is not applicable to robots traveling at speeds above 20 km/h detecting various problems such as: or toy robots. R. Mateo Ferrús, M. Domínguez Somonte / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 79 (2016) 99–107 101

Fig. 1. From the desired character to personality assessment [4].

• It is not applicable to aquatic or flying robots. It is a semi-autonomous robot whose main purpose is to • It is not applicable to industrial robots which are covered in ISO support people with disabilities and elderly people in their daily 10218. activities such as assistance for processing and preparation of food • It does not apply to robots that are medical devices. as well as support for their reintegration in the job market, to try, • It does not apply to military or law enforcement robots. to the maximum extent possible, carry out certain kinds of daily • It is not applicable to robots manufactured prior to the tasks without the help of therapists or nursing staff. publication of the standard ISO 13482:2014. Therefore, we have a regulatory framework in which we can base 2.1.2. Exoskeleton robots the design of the domestic or personal care robot considering the It is an evolution of bionic robots that partially supplement the risks emanating from a human assistance without exclusion of disability with reduced mobility. For example we find the Robot animals or property (security-related objects), provided that the Exoskeleton (REX) developed by Auckland-based Rex Bionics to be personal care robot is successfully installed, proper maintenance controlled with a joystick by the user [23]. is done and is intended for a reasonable use to fulfill its purpose. It features a lightweight rechargeable battery that can last up to two hours. There are some limitations of this bionic robot, 2.1. Analysis of domestic robots welfare-oriented since the user must have autonomy and strength to move into the exoskeleton on their own and be able to direct the robot by remote. Currently there are a wide variety of welfare-oriented robots Another limitation is its price, $150,000. The robot is available in trying to cover diverse fields such as telecare, elder care services New Zealand for purchase. or disabled people help. According to the Population Reference Bureau, 115 million people will live with dementia in 2050 [15] 2.1.3. Humanoid robot and is currently estimated that over 35 million people live with ASIMO [24] is a humanoid robot whose purpose is to help some form of dementia in different degrees of condition. people with disabilities. It has a new autonomous behavior control Similarly, it is expected that by the year 2050 the number of technology, greater autonomy than in previous versions and caregivers will be reduced in relation to the amount of people who intelligence and physical ability to adapt to situations. It has a needs special attention [16] as a result there is a tangible need weight of 49 kg, and can reach speeds of up to 9 km/h, up and down for the development of new assistance robots for a massive group stairs, running, jumping on one foot, walking on uneven ground, in a medium and long term. This would give people the ability differentiate three different voices in a simultaneous conversation to be independent of therapists or nurses providing robots to the and has touch sensitivity. families of dependents or giving more autonomy and longer for In the evolution of the ASIMO project have been refined the people who live alone. robot’s capabilities, from its inception as a prototype limbs to the Maria M. Martins et al. [17] in the classification and review of first version of the complete robot presented in 2000. assistive mobility devices focusing on Smart walkers for people The latest version from the robot is dated in 2011. Honda with mobility disabilities, explain the important role that robotics has reduced its weight and volume and improved its functional can play in mobility assistive devices which can support and aid abilities, but this robot is far from becoming an affordable cost the elderly in their daily life. robot to play the role of domestic assistive device. Search and analysis of robots users’ needs through the voice Another simpler robot on the market is the Nao [25] robot from of the customer as a process for the preparation of requirements the company Aldebaran Robotics. Nao humanoid robot is 58 cm and design features, is a research line and further development tall and is intended to be a domestic companion, transporting that aligns with the current requirements and demands of the user to a new level of emotions and spoken interaction with society, so the door to the enormous challenge of obtaining a the robot. Mechanically it is designed for walking and standing simple, economic, ecological, functional and autonomous robot up when falls. It can manipulate small objects with size and that responds to all or the vast majority of needs that nowadays we weight limitations. Mainly this robot is more useful as a robotics have as a growing in number and aging civilization remains open. programming teaching tool as a domestic worker, since it is based The following are some examples of the types of assistive robots on an open platform and has a high cost. without intention to enumerate all existing welfare robots in the market or nontraded industrial prototype. 2.1.4. Qbo robot The Qbo is a open software platform robot based on Linux 2.1.1. Care robot with functional arm. FRIEND robot [18] (OpenQbo) [26] whose platform is continuously being developed It is a assistive robotic system that has a robotic arm and and improved. a functional user interface for disabled people. It is the third The robot design and its components is owned by TheCorpora generation of this type of robots and is developed by the Institute S.L., a company dedicated to robotics [27]. of Automation, University of Bremen within the framework of This robot, 45 cm high and 11 kilos in weight, has stereoscopic different research projects of improved models [19], based on vision, voice recognition system and speech synthesis, wireless and previous developments with manipulator arm, [20] as a general mobility. Lacks arms but its main feature is that learns images and concept of robot for rehabilitation [21] and further improvement recognizes objects and people. It stores all its new knowledge in the in the field of visual perception of the robot [22]. cloud and share them with others Qbo robots, so the robot learning 102 R. Mateo Ferrús, M. Domínguez Somonte / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 79 (2016) 99–107 is very fast. It is able to recognize itself in a mirror or recognize without compromising on performance or customer experience. and interact with other robots of the same model. Has capability, Likewise has one sensor system to guide it back to its charging through web application, of telecare and video conferencing. Its station [32]. computer vision maps the house and it may circulate in standalone By contrast, the Samsung brand has added to its series Navibot mode. robot a vision sensor in order to build a virtual map of the The robot is available for sale at a very affordable price, so its room, prevent the robot passing twice on the same place. This potential for mass consumption is very high. Other options that technology gives the robot a neat way of cleaning, optimizing the company TheCorpora S. L. offers is to provide components for battery performance and obtaining better ratios of surface cleaned advanced users who want to mount their own robot. by charging cycle of the battery. This feature of artificial vision and surface mapping provides the robot the possibility to go to the 2.1.5. Complex care robot [28] charging cradle when the battery level requires and after loading Care-O-bot is a based and developed on an open platform it to go back to where its task left unfinished. Other distinguishing robot. It is an assistant robot that supports humans in domestic features of this robot are its low profile (8 cm) that provides better environments. It is built with standard industry components and access to the bottom of furniture, improving its efficiency, and a as a platform is fully customizable. This robot can be purchased very content sound level (66 dB) appropriate for use in homes or rented. Due to its high cost is not designed for actual use in a inhabited [33]. domestic consumer market. The LG brand presents with its model HomBot Squire similar Because of its high technology content is more oriented to characteristics of aspiration and machine vision including in its research purposes than for a private use. Its main strengths are robot a camera. In this design LG chooses a square geometry to manipulating objects autonomously and telecare. allow the robot to access corners better [34]. Another option of conceptual robot not available in the market but household-oriented is the Robot Twendy-one, in its early stages of development [29]. The main objective of this 2.2.2. Floor scrubbing robot development is to achieve a robot with communication functions Floor cleaning does not end just in aspiration. Scrubbing the with humans in a friendly way, support and object manipulation floor is used to be a basic task in domestic hygiene. The company functions. In particular, this robot has the feature to adjust its iRobot is ahead again presenting a small robot for domestic force acting to different forms of objects and adapt their pressure use for that purpose. Equipped with proximity sensors and task absorbing external forces generated by deviations in the position algorithms, cover the entire floor of up to 28 square meters in a of the object. cycle battery and a water tank. As a main feature of the new model there is a combination of three cleaning cycles that are swept 2.1.6. Sentinel robots and dampening, wet mopped and vacuumed and finally finishing The Japanese firm Alsok launched in 2006 to the corporate with squeegee. These models always use clean water, unlike the and industrial market the Reborg-Q [30] robot that, as a security manual scrubbing system. The performance of this robot is very robot, is programmable and can monitor an area, detect human, good, eliminating up to 99.3% of bacteria. fire and smoke and also tell you the time and weather forecast. His movement is independent and operates as an autonomous sentry. 2.2.3. Floor mopping robot The price for rent is 2600 e per month and is oriented only to the corporate market. This robot is useful for scrubbing the floor with use in wet Other options for actually domestic use would be the small mode or simply by mopping hard floors. Fitted with an intelligent sentinel robots remote-controlled through Internet applications, navigation system covers 100% of the surface to be cleaned by a i.e., we are able to control the robot remotely through our mobile station guide that helps to build a map of the room. Another feature device or personal computer. of this robot is its silent operation mode. Due to its low profile this From this type of teleoperated robots there are a variety of robot is perfect for cleaning under furniture where other manual manufacturers and prices. One example would be the WowWee have difficult access. Rovio Wi-fi [31]. It is a sentry robot with a recharging cradle which is remotely teleoperated through a computer application. 2.2.4. Lawn mower robot The company Husqvarna lawn mower robot [35] is the first 2.2. Analysis of domestic robots with hygienic feature mower robot that is powered by solar energy and have a sufficient autonomy to cover around 2500 square meters. Built using mostly 2.2.1. Vacuum cleaning robot recycled materials, this robot can keep the grass cut autonomously. This is the type of robot that more manufacturers have developed. Companies like iRobot, Samsung and LG are leading 2.2.5. Pool cleaning robot [36] brands with great market presence. Their products are similar as The pool cleaning robot main function is to remove dirt and to the purpose of the robot (clean and vacuum the floor), but are different in the technical and technological solutions applied in sludge on the bottom of the pools and, in addition, on its walls. their designs. They are programmable to be used when the house Its autonomous operating make this robot a must-have for the is empty. They also have charging cradles, where they return when hygiene of the pool. The model presents a filtering system of very its battery level is low. easy cleaning and its operation system is by random movements The company iRobot is committed to the Roomba robot whose in the pool bottom and walls. The Vortex creates a powerful swirl sensors detect obstacles in order to reduce the speed of impact, within the filter, which remains the dirt in suspension, preventing and also detects dirt on the floor. By operation algorithms it does it from adhering to the walls of the filter clogging it, effect that will different random movements until the entire surface is cleaned. It cause it to degrade performance. It also has four wheels to help is a simple method of covering the entire surface without providing stick itself to the walls of the pool. At the time of extracting the the robot neither of navigation systems nor artificial vision to fulfill water robot, it connects the rear jet to help propel. This robot is an its mission. Solutions of this type help to reduce product cost example of the effectiveness of a simple and robust design. R. Mateo Ferrús, M. Domínguez Somonte / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 79 (2016) 99–107 103

2.2.6. Window cleaning robot The window cleaning robot Winbot 710 [37] from the company Ecovacs is a robot designed for cleaning windows and glasses with or without frame. It is based on a movement on the entire surface of the glass sliding a front and a rear . The attached suction system keeps the robot adhered to the glass and tracked by two pulleys it moves along the glass. The robot must be connected to the mains but has a battery backup to avoid falling into the void in case of power outage. The innovation of this robot focuses on the absence of magnets and second parts across the glass.

3. Reflexions

Following the presentation of the different types of domestic assistant robots and home robots with specific cleaning function- alities, a wide range of options for improvement in existing designs are emerging. Best care robots are complete but also complex and with time- Fig. 2. Aspects and its condition at the Voice of the Customer. constrained movements and actions. Does not look like they can operate completely autonomously without the supervision of a 4. Methodology for finding the voice of the customer qualified engineer or technical support. By contrast, small household cleaning robots, with much The Voice of Customer (VOC) is a process for capturing customer simpler and specialized functions, work perfectly autonomously requirements. This process produces a detailed set of needs and and independently with excellent results in the performance of requirements that are organized in a hierarchical structure and are their duties. prioritized in terms of relative importance and satisfaction of the There is a big difference in performance and affordability of the various alternatives. robots described above. There is no assistive robot for the open There are four fundamental aspects of VOC that are: market with reduced cost and fully developed. The only tangible and economical option would be the Qbo robot but this is more – Customer needs. the base of open source development than a functional robot for – The hierarchical structure. domestic assistance. – The customer priorities. There is a great distance separating the two families of robots. – Perceptions of the customer performance. Neither the existing welfare robots can satisfy the consumption We represent these aspects and their percentages in the graph of large masses due to its high cost and management, nor small (see Fig. 2). domestic robots cover care needs at home. In this article we focus on the characteristics and qualitative Since the functional requirements of both families of robots customer needs, as the voice of the customer is key in defining the are different, it is necessary to build a bridge between the two requirements for the development of a new product. families, so that the functionalities of household cleaner robot As outputs of the process of analyzing the customer’s voice will need to be extended towards welfare, and the complex care robots have a detailed knowledge of customer requirements, the basis for need to evolve to a simpler design, ecological and content, free of the definition of the new product’s specifications and a wide range maintenance and specialized technical supervision. of opportunities for innovation in the product, obtaining a solid We observe great potential of design improvements in house- basis for the design and marketing decisions from the start of the hold cleaning robots and security robots to serve the present soci- development of the concept to its launch. ety in the near future. For the reasons stated above, the growth of Voice of the Customer has its origins in the Quality Function society in need of care and assistance and the future decline in the Deployment (QFD), which is used to develop customer needs that number of caregivers in relation to people in need of assistance, it are related to performance measures [38]. is imperative a design evolution of the existing robots in order to provide society with robots that improve the quality of life of peo- ple who live alone, extending their independent life without the 4.1. Customer needs query need for nursing staff and providing assistance tools to caregivers. A challenge of the present civilization will be caring for an el- A customer need is a description, in the costumers’ own words, derly population with varying degrees of dementia. Small assis- of the benefit of the product or service that must be completely tance robots covering functions such as company, improvement satisfied. For example ‘‘the robot has to turn on and off when I order and cognitive recovery through exercise and conversation with el- it’’. The client does not need the robot to have a specific behavior derly people, performing simple tasks as cleaning the house au- or a specific type of microphone, but he describes how he wants to tonomously, will increase the quality of human life of people when interact with the robot. they have depleted some of their capabilities. Identifying customer needs is mainly a task of qualitative Complementing the assistance care, and based on existing research. We will develop a study of 25 clients issuing an individual household cleaning robots design, providing new functionalities interview in which we will request the client to imagine the robot to this people can complement and enhance our quality of life that he wants. As the client describes their experience, we interact and experience as a user, expanding their roles to information seeking and searching a better description of how he sees the robot, management, connectivity to social networks, entertainment, its features, its physical and behavioral traits, its operation and monitoring of vital signs and endless options to investigate and functions and desired tasks. analyze. All these comments and notes will be ordered hierarchically. 104 R. Mateo Ferrús, M. Domínguez Somonte / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 79 (2016) 99–107

Within each of the primary needs we proceed to enumerate and classify the following secondary or tactical needs: – Size Robot – The size of the robot has to be small enough so it can go under beds and sofas. – The size of the robot must be allowed into nooks and corners where the access is difficult. – The robot must be round or rounded to run between the legs of chairs. – Functional Robot – The robot has to vacuum dirt from the floor. – The robot has to mop the floor with water and detergent. – The robot has to control and watch all the rooms of the house. – The robot must not collide with objects. – The robot has not to scratch the walls and doors. – The robot has to perceive the sound and come to where the sound comes from. – The robot has to offer bidirectional teleassistance. – The robot must be powered by a screen to see the speaker. – Has to detect people and animals. – It works as alarm and sentry. – Robot Maneuverability – It has to be voice-controlled. – It has to operate with buttons easy to understand. – The cleanup functions must be programmed in time. – It should be easy to clean. – It should not scratch furniture and doors. – Autonomy of the robot – It should automatically be filled with clean water. – It has to empty itself of the dirty water independently. – It must to empty itself of dirt in the suction tank au- tonomously. – It has to go alone to the charging cradle. – The battery must have enough duration to complete the cleanup of the entire floor. – It must have GSM phone and wifi connection. – Quality of the robot – It must be robust. – It should last five years or more. – The battery should last two years or more. – The materials of the robot must be of high quality. – The finishing touches of the robot must be of high quality. The following graph shows how is distributed each of the Fig. 3. Table with the list of interviews and age/gender. primary needs with the amount of tactical needs containing (see Fig. 4). Therefore, the current study of the voice of the customer 4.2. Hierarchical structuring of customer requirements shows that the functionality of the robot is the primary need, with more requirements to be meet, followed by autonomy and In the first step of the Voice of the Customer we will find a list of maneuverability of the robot. 75–100 detailed characteristics that will be structured in primary, Following the completion of 25 individual interviews with secondary and/or tertiary. people of different ages and levels of training, and interacting The primary needs are strategic, and from each one will during the interview with questions about the ideal characteristics emanate from three to ten secondary needs. of an imaginary robot, based or not on the experiences and These secondary (or tactics) needs specifically will indicate knowledge of the customer, it can be concluded that each person what must be done to meet the primary needs. Tertiary needs, based their comments and wishes for the new robot on lived or also called detailed needs, provides more specifications for experiences and needs from their own daily lives. engineering so we can detail and list in depth the characteristics The desire to have more free time to be dedicated to leisure and of the robot. family is most common in younger respondents. In our case 25 interviews with people aged 12–67 years are The fear of loneliness and lack of ability necessary to live done as noted in the following table (see Fig. 3). independently is more common in older people interviewed or In these interviews were obtained lists with all the features of youth people with the responsibility of caring for elderly people. the robot and are sorted into five primary needs (strategic needs) For all the above, from this methodology of search of with twenty-nine secondary needs (tactical needs). customer needs that is focused on the development of the design The primary needs are: size of the robot, robot’s functionality, requirements for a future robot, it follows that, regardless of maneuverability of the robot, the robot’s autonomy and quality of the morphology and design, the functionality of the robot is the the robot. primary need and it is the more restrictive. R. Mateo Ferrús, M. Domínguez Somonte / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 79 (2016) 99–107 105

In the following columns, the design team makes a list of the equipments and components to be included in the design of the robot to meet customer needs. This list should not be very long, it should be rather general but with well-specified components (see Fig. 5). The design team evaluate the impact that each capability, technique or necessary element of the robot has in satisfying each customer’s needs, splitting criteria in high impact with scores from five to four, medium impact score with three, and low impact score with two and one. The skills and techniques that do not have any impact on the client’s needs are left empty.

5. Definition of basic requirements and results

After completing the QFD we analyze the results thereof, for which we will observe the rows of absolute sum of importance and its ranking (see Fig. 6). This analysis shows that the highest scoring feature and impact in the design must be the charging and cleaning station for the robot, so that it can return to its initial location and recharging the battery, draining the vacuum tank and dirty water tank, and the subsequent filling of the tank with clean water. Another feature of the robot that stands out in the second position is the onboard computer. The robot must be controlled by Fig. 4. Primary needs and quantity of secondary needs. a computer that gives the ability to manage the different resources and hardware he needs to carry out his activities (vacuuming, Other aspects are highly regarded as the robot autonomy in mopping, telecare and surveillance). terms of length of service, the independent operation and the lack Thirdly we have IR sensors and sonar for obstacle detection, of maintenance. people and animals. With cameras we can also have a vision system The client seeks to be unconcerned about the operation of for face recognition of people or intruders. the robot and wants the robot to works inadvertently and with Fourthly we observe that the customer values that the battery excellent results. life may be sufficient for a complete cleaning cycle and also They must also be the materials and finishing touches of the it has a autonomy that ensures the robot use in remote mode robot excellent. Numerous comments about the quality of the and monitoring. Sentry mode should allow the robot make long robot and that it has be perceived, note the desire of the client of distances without recharging the battery. having a product with excellent appearance and materials. In the fifth and sixth positions, with the same score, are the Ecology has also be present in the comments about the materi- technical features needed to satisfy one of the most repeated als used in the design, particularly as these have to be recyclable, requests by the client such as scrubbing the floor with clean water. pointing out that recycled materials should not necessarily be used. For this, the robot must have a filling for clean water and emptying Materials could be recycled only if the appearance is excellent. the dirty water station, used independently and unsupervised. All these perceptions and subjective remarks have to be In seventh position, we find the system of self-emptying of captured, quantified and analyzed, and from these will arise the dirt collected by the robot. Nowadays the robots from iRobot specific design requirements. This analysis and optimization of the company do not have this feature, but it exists in other robots on results of the interviews with the client take place through the the market such as the robot RC3000 of Karcher deployment of the quality function. brand, which already includes the ability of the robot of emptying itself through an autonomous suction system, so that the robot can 4.3. Priorities definition make several cleaning cycles without user assistance. The finishing touches of the robot and the use of high quality For some customers some needs have higher priority than materials is relegated to eighth position. A robot built by high- others. To assess the impact of these decisions we will perform a quality materials, with thin lines of separation between compo- QFD (Quality Function Deployment) [39] by which we can abstract nents and gaps between product surfaces almost imperceptible and quantify the priority of each of the needs of different customers make the object to have the appearance and finishing touch of a to whom we have made the interview. So we interview the client high quality product. This feature is explicitly required by the cus- again and evaluate their priorities. tomer. By deploying Quality Function Deployment (QFD) we will trans- Ninth and tenth place we find the connectivity of the robot with form user’s demands into design quality, to subsequently imple- the outside world through wifi and GSM telephony. It is vital that ment the functions that provide more quality, suggesting methods the robot may be wirelessly connected to the outside network to to achieve quality in the design of subsystems and components, transfer alarms, communications and other data of the robot to the and at the end, in specific elements of the manufacturing process. user. We conduct a reassessment with ten clients, listing in the The robot GSM connection ensures, at all times, a continuous left column each one of the aforementioned needs. Then, and in communication even when power fails and wifi is affected. Use columns, are listed all clients numbered from 1 to 10. Each client of this GSM network would be relegated to be used in case of rates every need from one to five, five for major score and one for emergency and for receiving calls and conversations from any minor, according what he considers about the robot needs. external phone. 106 R. Mateo Ferrús, M. Domínguez Somonte / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 79 (2016) 99–107

Fig. 5. QFD table settings made on 25 features and 10 clients.

6. Conclusions Another consideration to keep in mind in these times of macroeconomic crisis is the increasing insecurity and the growing Consumer robotics today is centered at home. Currently there need for safety and monitoring systems in our homes. are many that vacuum, clean, clean windows and even pass the The exercise in this study has also found the desire by the mop. client to bring together all these features in a single robot to work There are also remote-controlled robots that allow us to see and autonomously with almost no maintenance or user intervention. tour our home remotely and in a way controlled by the user. A robot that is present in the home but whose tasks go unnoticed. Within this scenario we wanted to investigate the opinions It would be a robot to clean our home, take care of it and ours and concerns of the customer in the robotic field in the domestic at the same time, having a well designed, sturdy, economical and environment, noting that there is a kind of robot that includes ecological design. many of the features of existing robots but goes much further. The reduced cost shall guarantee a success in the number of Faced with an aging civilization that lives longer, new needs of sales since the customer has demonstrated to want more than he assistance to our olders appear. Lack of time forces us to not be has today but with a similar or reasonable price. present in our homes for a time in which we need to make eye In the near future we will attend the launch of a large numbers contact with our family. of domestic robots, many of which will be replicas of existing ones, This same lack of time makes us reconsider the dedication of it. but others will be innovative and will lead sales backed by the same In our daily life cleaning our home has to be transferred to a robot development represented. that facilitates us to maintain hygiene of our house and so save time The development of a robot that includes the features detailed that can be to dedicated to other personal priorities. on this study will be an innovative robot that could possibly lead R. Mateo Ferrús, M. Domínguez Somonte / Robotics and Autonomous Systems 79 (2016) 99–107 107

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