Panasonic has released a new "robotic vacuum cleaner" with the latest deep learning and robotic technology.

Our general manager said in his speech that household appliances "need to be intelligent" in the future.

"in society and life there, every day, with the growth of the year, there will be all kinds of changes, at the same time, the necessary things and services will also change. The important thing is to stay close to life and get to know customers. Home appliances are close to life, and future home appliances need to understand the "intelligence" of customers' way of life. "(our president)

ロボティクス技術やAI(人工知能)技術を用いた「知能化」が今後の家電に重要だと本間社長は語った

The director of the Future Robotics Research Center (FuRo) of Chiba University of Technology, who is co-developed with Panasonic, will make the following speech on the intelligence of home appliances.

"at the time of intelligence, the president and I discussed the need to innovate the development process of intelligent white goods. In the robot world, it is natural to develop software and hardware in parallel and agile at the same time. The conceptual model has been developed for only 3 months, but it is very powerful to develop robotics, AI, automatic manipulation and other technologies in a very short time.

But relying solely on traditional production methods and technologies to achieve intelligence is too boring, or not beautiful. Put into everyone's hands exciting experience, close to people's home appliances, as well as super-cutting-edge just done technology, bring to everyone in order to achieve "intelligent". "(Gutian)

千葉工業大学 常任理事 未来ロボット技術研究センター(fuRo)所長で工学博士の古田 貴之氏ロボット開発プロセスを応用することで、約3カ月という短期間でのコンセプトモデル開発を実現した

The conceptual model is equipped with the world's first "AI floor sensor" evolved through deep learning to identify objects on the floor and automatically lift the body according to the steps.

The sensor itself is a very simple laser sensor that has been developed and put into a state-of-the-art deep learning system within three months. This can identify not only anything on the floor, but also people who are moving. In this way, you can achieve the "otomo function" (the function of recognizing others and following it), you can make a map of the room, and you can identify things on the ground. Evolved into such a clever robot vacuum cleaner. "(Gutian)

レーザーセンサーを用いた「AI床センサ」を搭載している

It is reported that the single laser sensor used by the AI floor sensor can only measure distance, but combined with deep learning, it can be converted into complex three-dimensional information.

"to put it simply, it is to use a really simple sensor and solve it in a smart way. The expensive sensor is a double-edged sword with high failure rate and difficult operation. The ideal is to use simple materials to make it delicious, similar to the cuisine. "(Gutian)

In the previous RULO series (RULO MC-RS-800), "visual SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping)" using camera sensors is used in room mapping and self-location presumption. In this conceptual model, fuRo's independent high-speed space recognition technology "ScanSLAM" using laser sensors is used.

レーザーセンサーによって空間を認識し、自己位置を推定するfuRo独自の高速空間認識技術「ScanSLAM」を活用している

"I didn't hesitate to put super state-of-the-art autopilot technology into this little body. This is a gratifying technology that just won the paper award at the Robotics Society's academic Toastmasters this year. Laser SLAM is not a bigger CPU that can't be moved, but the ScanSLAM we developed won the paper prize because it saves memory, is fast, and is very sturdy. It is because of our SLAM that we have joined the existing RULO. In addition, RULO's CPU system is very mature, and the quality control is very stable, so it is very practical to enter (Gutian).

Combined with the automatic control technology, it can also remotely instruct and coordinate the cleaning of spots in the flat panel terminal. In addition, because it can always accurately grasp the surrounding environment and its own position, in addition to being able to reliably return to the charging station, it also realizes the function of raising the main body docked on the charging station to the vertical state electrically through robot technology.

Gutian said: "I am a home appliance enthusiast, is a robot vacuum cleaner enthusiast, to be a robot vacuum cleaner is my dream."

「ロボット掃除機を作るのが夢だったんですよ」と語る古田氏

It is said that one of the functions that this fanatical Mr. Furuta feels necessary to use at home is the vertical placement function.

"my wife stood up when she said the robot vacuum cleaner was in the way. In this way, it won't be able to recharge, so there's not enough electricity. In addition, if it is actually used, Lagu is not good at it, it is "killing robot vacuum cleaners". It comes from this kind of problem consciousness. "(Gutian)

講演会場でデモも行われた。タブレットから掃除をスタートすると、縦置きの状態から自動的に発進するScanSLAMによって自動的に地図を生成する間取りを認識しながら自動的に掃除を進めていくホームボタンを押すと、素早く充電台まで戻っていく子供用のプレイマットや毛足の長いラグを見つけると、車輪を持ち上げて難なく乗り上げた端に房の付いたラグや、畳も認識して乗り越えていった