Robots have disappointed humans so far in their ability to mix and help people in their everyday lives. Other than industry and research, they have mostly been for entertainment. But a group of robotics researchers at University Jaume I in Spain is working on a robot librarian which could deliver the promise of a helpful bot. The prototype has cameras, sensors and grippers so it can locate and collect a book. The hope is that one day teams of service robots could work in libraries. The main issue with deploying service robots outside of the factory to work in domains surrounded by people has been one of safety, explained Professor Angel del Pobil. Mixing robots and humans in an unstructured, uncontrolled environment, where there all manner of obstacles to negotiate, could have unpredictable results. Professor Pobil thinks libraries are the best place to start introducing robots into public spaces, or at least to start showing that the technology is possible and works. "A library is a semi-structured environment," Professor Pobil told BBC News Online. "You can meet other humans, but it is not like an airport or somewhere like that. "So we think it is a good environment in which service robots are out there, working in a human environment, but it is still a controlled one." The robot is a mobile manipulator which means that it is a vehicle with three wheels, Professor Pobil explained. It has an arm with seven joints, two fingers which form a gripper, and two micro cameras on its wrist.

Four sensors built into its gripper senses the force it is applying. When it receives a request for a book, its voice recognition software matches the titles with the book's classification code in the database. It can then search the database to identify which bookshelf stack to go to. Because the database will only give an approximate location, the robot will navigate its way to the bookshelf, using its infrared and laser guidance system, and scan books within a four-metre radius.

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