Robo - Server

As robots go, Robo-Server is a modest little unit with limited skills and a lot of wires sticking out.

But forget reality. The robots of our dreams were inspired by the imaginings of Hanna-Barbera and George Lucas.

The animated, nasal-toned Rosie the Robot cleaned windows and served dinner in a handy capsule on The Jetsons, Hanna-Barbera's early-1960s cartoon family.

The prototype droid C-3PO and his Star Wars buddy R2-D2 proved to be stalwart icons of loyalty and servitude.

For Byron Thiessen, it was Lucas's C-3PO and The Terminator that fuelled high-tech boyhood fantasy. For fellow University of B.C. students Ken Chu, Stephen Tan, Sicong Liu and Jiyan Lam, it was Gundam, a long-running Japanese anime series featuring gigantic robotic armour that can turn a weakling into a mega-force.

What this team of UBC undergraduate computer and electrical engineering students has designed is Robo-Server, a robotic room-service waiter.

If Robo-Server makes it to market, it may be able to speak a few words such as "Dinner is served," or "Please" and "Thank you."

It will be able ride elevators, be equipped with a tracking device, and never spill a drop of coffee. Its operators will know if the meal it's carrying is stolen, or if it's about to crash into a fellow robot.

But for now, the robot is waiting to be judged by a panel of professors grading undergrad projects. The verdict comes down today.

Regardless of their final mark, Thiessen said team members can see a commercial future for domestic robots. "I think robotics is moving in the direction of a home-type atmosphere. It's not just for factories anymore."

Assigned to create a mechanism to aid positive social progress, the team first considered a robotic device to aid residents of a nursing or care home. They later settled on one designed to serve guests at a hotel.

The operator of a team of Robo-Servers stationed in a kitchen will press a button corresponding to a hotel room to put the device in motion. The faux-waiter is programmed to stop directly in front of the room.

Once the guest removes the tray, a weight sensor alerts Robo-Server to leave. Along the way, the robot lets the kitchen know when the meal has arrived and when it's been served.

Side and front sensors act as high-tech whiskers, allowing Robo-Server to gauge his distance from walls and obstacles.

The students had a $400 budget and only a few months. "The software component was a lot harder than we thought it would be," said Thiessen.

The group didn't have the money or time to teach it to travel by elevator and to sense that food has been stolen from its tray.

It could be equipped with a tracking device to avert thieves from stealing the robot and a voice device to add warmth.