We are here to help make your Commercial Personal Robot™ (CPR™) effective for your personal business needs whether you deploy only one CPR or a fleet. TRC services include custom CPR-App™ development; TRC’s CPR 3rd Party Developer program and consultant connections; CPR App Store™; and strategic consultation. TRC plans to add additional cloud services including remote monitoring, and ICT and Call Center integration.
As we enter the Beta phase for the CPR-Platform™, we are looking for projects that could be built on top of the CPR-Platform. We will consider projects that will require additional hardware accessories that can be developed by integration with TRC’s CPR SDK for plug-and-play hardware. Other interesting projects include integration with IT infrastructure managed by the IT organization. For example, we have on our books a plan for a Receptionist App that will integrate telepresence, facial recognition, data integration for enterprise directory and personnel location, location mapping, and more. We also plan to have integration with the enterprise telepresence and video conference vendors. If you see a way to use a robot in the office to increase office efficiency, then please contact us to discuss. The same robot can also be used for internal package delivery, evening security patrol and so much more as developers with domain expertise come on board.
The CPR App Store™
TRC’s CPR App Store provides for easy purchase, download, and implementation of robot (CPR) apps and CPR cloud services from TRC and members of our 3rd Party Developer program to the end-user customers of CPRs. As mentioned above, this will become a marketplace for the 3rd party developers as well as a means to grow revenue from a custom internal project. All CPR-Apps listed on the CPR App Store will have to pass a certification process that stresses security and proper integration with standard hardware and software components.
Authentication & Security
Security for motile robots is a critical requirement when robot solutions are designed for commercial use. A 2017 published analysis of robot platforms and commercial robots on today’s market shows this issue is often extreme. Knowledgeable hackers can use exploits in these robots to crack an enterprise’s security with unexpected surveillance or highjack it for their own purposes. This issue has been one of the major reasons behind TRC’s creation of the CPR-OS™. TRC takes a unique approach, each CPR has a unique identity (CPR-ID chip™) created with a physical chip along with the digital-based security subsystems.
Since each CPR has a unique identity, the authentication process substantially reduces the security risk of a CPR. Upon startup and at various times of operation, a CPR will authenticate with a connection to home, whether behind the firewall of an enterprise or to the public TRC cloud service. For an enterprise, this authentication allows for integration with the I.T. infrastructure and security protocols. A CPR’s identity may be cloned, but as soon as the clone tries to authenticate to the cloud, all CPRs with a “shared” identity will be interrupted and put into a “Secure Rest” stance for determination of identity by human-in-the-loop services.
Telepresence and Video Streaming
Built into the CPR-OS is support for telepresence and video streaming. It is TRC’s philosophy that all commercial robots should have telepresence as an embedded safety option, but not all utility and service robots need telepresence in their use case functionality. Hence, telepresence capability is built into the CPR platform and can be added, if not already present, through a simple HDMI connection and appropriate physical mounts. The internal hardware and support software will be embedded into every CPR.
Our philosophy about the need to have it available comes from the reality of programming a service robot application. When a service robot finds itself in circumstances for which it is not programmed, it may need to call upon human supervision to resolve its issue. There will be cameras, microphones, and speakers on most CPRs, but not necessarily displays. This will allow for remote control override and communications with the environment around the robot. The monitor adds a human visual distance interaction. How the display aspect of a CPR and other telepresence hardware components is a decision for the manufacturer or, in the case of small run solutions, up to the Systems Integrator’s designer.
At least one of TRC’s off-the-shelf CPRs will have an optional display screen. All CPRs will have camera, microphones, and speakers, plus the supporting software to negotiate the network requirements. This technology will be demonstrated in the “Remote Tour Guide” (RTG) App, as well as the Receptionist App™.
Unlike other “telepresence robots” on the market today, TRC’s off-the-shelf CPR can use the video feed simultaneously for robot-local processing, cloud-based processing, and sharing as a video stream to one or more end-users. In the most fundamental version, a single user authenticates with the cloud administrative process and then takes control of a remote robot. The end-user views real-time the audio-video stream while navigating the robot thru its remote environment. The CPR processes the video stream and other sensor data to avoid collisions or going off a cliff.
In a more advanced app, the CPR may navigate autonomously from point A to point B using its camera and other sensors. It could send the video and data streams to a cloud service for analysis and recording, leading to machine learning and big data applications. An advanced app could use a CPR’s attached display for an animated face in a social interactive app. The animation could be a real-time interpretation of a Call Center operator’s expression for a character-based relationship.
The built-in mic will feed data to the advanced AI acceleration hardware that runs most processes on the CPR including voice-based UI or interpretation. Imagine holding up to the CPR’s camera a page of text written in Mandarin which the robot, using 3rd party APIs like Baidu or Google provides, to translate it to English which is then spoken or displayed on the robot’s display.
The CPR-OS will support advanced video formats including 3D, stereo, UHD, VR, 360° and 720°. It can also sensor mesh additional sensor data with the video such as IR cameras.
Command and Control (C&C)
The CPR-OS allows one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-one control procedures. A CPR app can control hand-off between multiple operators and autonomous algorithms. C&C may be internally directed by the app running on the robot, the app running in the background in the cloud, human remote control like human-in-the-loop, combined control direction among multiple robots with a master or cloud hub, collaborative robot apps (referred to as Cobots), or any complex combination. The internal distributed functioning of the CPR essentially makes the independent hardware components behave like a Cobot.
An app developer can allow multiple decision processes to be running in parallel with the CPR-OS providing a negotiation process to manage robot operations.
The C&C includes hardware accessories from additional articulated components, like an arm, or sensors, or alternative mobility functions. When walking apparatus becomes affordable, then it can become an option for affordable CPRs.
Call Center Connectivity
To support the Last Mile Delivery use case, as presented in TRC’s entry in the 2015 Verizon Powerful Answers Award competition, it became obvious to TRC product management that we need to include connectivity to Call Center operations. This will be used for human-in-the-loop technical support, remote driving, and special use cases such as with a home security solution that uses CPRs for “Home First Responders” function. The fleet administration cloud service can be integrated with Call Center operations. In addition, I.T. infrastructure policy-based security may be integrated as well.
TRC uses this Call Center integration to help CPR users resolve issues. It can also be used by companies setting up new security patrol solutions with CPRs, Last Mile Delivery solutions that require human interaction during the drive or at each end of the transaction, and much more.
Outsourced Technical and Business Development Services
TRC has strategic relationships with ICT development groups in various locations around the world. These certified developers have special training and will be able to produce high-quality CPR apps to meet a business’ specifications and budget.
TRC also supports a business development team that can help an enterprise or project manager design and develop a custom CPR app to satisfy specific commercial and business needs. For example, a company that manages the security patrols for multiple facilities may want to develop a version of a telepresence-enabled CPR with semi-autonomous functionality. Our Business Development consultants can help in defining the project using PCR functionality that can be done at a practical cost.
Finally, TRC also supports entrepreneurs who have an idea for a commercial robot business but want to do it intelligently and without the immense costs of developing custom hardware. We also can help with the business model, proposing alternatives that could change the risk profile and reduce upfront or operational costs.
For more details and Roadmap information, please contact us.