Do We Need iPhone Moment or Xiaomi Moment for Robots? Design of Affordable Home Robots for Health Monitoring

TL;DR

This paper explores designing affordable home robots for health monitoring by leveraging AI, edge computing, and existing resources like mobile phones to bridge the gap between cost and functionality.

Contribution

It proposes a framework for developing cost-effective home health monitoring robots using edge computing and existing consumer devices.

Findings

Edge computing enables affordable health monitoring solutions.

Mobile phones can be integrated into robot systems for enhanced capabilities.

The approach reduces costs while maintaining functional effectiveness.

Abstract

In this paper, we study cost-effective home robot solutions which are designed for home health monitoring. The recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have significantly advanced the capabilities of the robots, enabling them to better and efficiently understand and interact with their surroundings. The most common robots currently used in homes are toy robots and cleaning robots. While these are relatively affordable, their functionalities are very limited. On the other hand, humanoid and quadruped robots offer more sophisticated features and capabilities, albeit at a much higher cost. Another category is educational robots, which provide educators with the flexibility to attach various sensors and integrate different design methods with the integrated operating systems. However, the challenge still exists in bridging the gap between affordability and functionality. Our research aims to address this by exploring the potential of developing advanced yet affordable and accessible robots for home robots, aiming for health monitoring, by using edge computing techniques and taking advantage of existing computing resources for home robots, such as mobile phones.