Development of a prototype robot with advanced functions for use in homes, offices, hospitals and museums

Robotics at the service of human beings is a discipline with tremendous potential for development in coming years and Guipuzcoa intends to be at the forefront of this emerging technology. With financial assistance from the Kutxa Social Work department, Tekniker-IK4 will develop a new service robot that will make cutting-edge technologies available to users. The new robot will be mobile, autonomous and have advanced functionalities specially designed for assistance in indoor environments, meaning that it can be used in homes, offices, hospitals, residential homes and museums.

After two years, the kTbot project will present a prototype that will be a significant milestone in the development of this technology, positioning Guipuzcoa as a point of reference in an emerging field with tremendous potential for development and will allow the technology to be transferred to industry. Key factors will be the TEKNIKER-IK4 know-how in the field of automation and robotics and the 540,000 Euros provided by the Kutxa Social Work department.
Assistive robotics is becoming an effective option for answering human needs in different contexts, such as supporting individuals in a situation of dependency for reasons of age or health, as well as being applicable in professional and recreational settings and other services that enhance human welfare.

The end product of the kTbot will be an assistive robot 100% "made in Guipuzcoa" that will be able to move autonomously, interact with humans using voice and images and recognise individuals, meaning that research will need to be carried out in different technological fields, such as mechatronics, sensorics and machine learning.
Initially, the prototype will be a demonstrator to show the potential of service robotics (in such places as the KutxaEspacio de la Ciencia science museum in San Sebastian), but it will also be a "living" being as it is scaleable and can incorporate more functionalities than originally planned.
The process of acquiring new technology and consolidating that already in existence involved in the project also has great potential for launching new businesses in Guipuzcoa in this extremely attractive emerging market.

12 million robots in the world

The latest figures from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) underline the growth of service robots in coming years. Their WorldRobotics report highlights the fact that 49,000 service robots for industrial use and over 5 million for personal use (domestic and entertainment) had been sold up to 2007. For the period 2008-2011 it is estimated that 54,000 professional service robots and no less than 12 million robots for personal use are being sold.
To this we should add the significant development of service robots for scientific applications that are still at the prototype stage and cannot yet be bought.
The most advanced countries for service robots are the United States, Japan and Korea, while the field is as yet little developed in Europe. By late 2006 there were some 200 companies manufacturing or developing services robots worldwide.

TEKNIKER-IK4, the benchmark for robotics

The kTbot project aims to position Guipuzcoa as one of the leaders in this field, based on Tekniker-IK4's over 25 years experience of R+D+i in the field of automation and industrial robotics. People-oriented assistive robotics was first developed at the technological centre in 2005 with the NOA project, a high performance chair that was also funded by the Kutxa Social Work department. Since then, the technological centre in Eibar has identified service robotics as one of its strategic lines of work.

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