The Human-Machine Interface Of A Service-Robot Based On ARM: Design And Application

With the rapid development of computer technology, the functions of service robotsincrease quickly and the human-machine interface is improved continuously. As an importantintegrated part of service robotic system, the development of human-machine interface has beenbeing a hot-spot in recent years. Language, as one of the specific feature of human beings, is aconvenient and natural way in the communication between humans and robots, which serves asthe most important tool in human-machine interface.Currently, the voice-based interface technology has been developed in two directions. Thefirst one is the continuous voice system with large vocabulary, which is implemented on PCplatform, such as voice inquiry service system. Another one is the application in the portable andminiaturized voice products, such as voice control in vehicle equipments, voice dialing on aphone, intelligence control in appliance, and also intelligence toys, etc., most of them areimplemented by specified voice chips.In this paper, we designed and implemented a small vocabulary voice interface system onan ARM imbedded platform by using voice miniaturization technology. A graphical userinterface is also designed as a complementary channel. Basing on the characteristics of ARMimbedded system, both software and hardware systems in the targeted platform are cut andcustomized and the functions of voice chips is optimized to meet the practical requirements ofhuman-machine interface. By using Linux operation system for the imbedded system, the driversand applications according to the characteristics of voice chips are designed and Qttrans-platform language is used to design the graphical user interface. A human-machineinterface for a campus-navigation-robot is built, and then it is transplanted to a targeted board toachieve an integrated imbedded dual-channel interface of both voice and graphics. The wholesystem is tested systematically and the obtained response shows that it is a qualifieddual-channel human-machine interface system.