Task classification in multi-role robotic systems for independent living

Homecare robots aiming at supporting the elderly independently living are necessary for aging society. Such kind robots must have multi-role with various capability to provide essential services, such as laundry, setting up table and preparing dinner. Each of these services is a task to be fulfilled from the view point of homecare robots. Understanding each task and being able to differentiate tasks are crucial for a homecare robot to successfully provide desired assistance and service to aging population. This paper introduces a Nature Language based approach to task classification. A verb-based task classifier was developed to extract tasks in the form of verbs and nouns given user's commands. A verb vector technique was then employed to classify tasks into categories according to verb clusters. Experiment results demonstrated that the proposed task classifier can successfully extract tasks from user's commands and to classify them into task categories.