Service Robots

One area of digital-physical information systems is service robotics. Service robots are technical devices that perform tasks useful to the well-being of humans in a semi or fully autonomous way (International Federation of Robotics 2015a). The differentiation between industrial and service robots is based on their area of application and closeness to end-users (Prestes et al. 2013). Since service robots have to operate and communicate in an unconstraint, human-centered environment, a high degree of autonomy is an inherent characteristic of them (Haidegger et al. 2013). Today, in addition to industrial robots, service robots have appeared on the scene. Thanks to advances in sensor technology, robots are no longer bound to an industrial context but can operate in unconstrained environments of everyday life (Haidegger et al. 2013). Hence, the key differentiator between an industrial robot and a service robot is not the robot itself but rather the context it is operating in.