Jeeves: the service robot can take the lift

“bp408 – ready for Jeeves”: Böhnke + Partner GmbH has developed a software API together with the manufacturer of a service robot that enables the robot to use the lifts in a Cologne hotel.

By Peter Gerstenmeyer

You must be familiar with the situation: just after checking into your hotel room on the fifth floor, you are busy unpacking everything from your trolley into the cupboards and you suddenly discover you forgot your toothbrush.

An international hotel in Cologne offers a special service for its guests in such cases. You make a brief call to the reception and a friendly voice tells you that a toothbrush will be delivered to your room immediately. A few minutes later your room telephone rings and a voice asks you to take receipt of the desired utensil at the room door.

You open the room door and in front of you see the autonomous service robot Jeeves, which asks you politely to remove the desired toothbrush from its drawer.

Lift controller communicates with the robot?

Photo: © Peter Gerstenmeyer

In future, service robots will conquer new fields of activity. They will find increasing use in hospitals, administrations, private or public life. This is why Böhnke + Partner GmbH developed a software API (application planning interface) within a few weeks of close and intensive cooperation with Robotise AG, the manufacturer of the service robot Jeeves. It enables Jeeves to use the lifts in the Cologne hotel.

For this purpose, the software API of the lift controller communicates with the Robotise cloud, via which the robot fleet is controlled in the field. If Jeeves wants to use a lift, it can select it directly or request the lift ideal for it in an existing lift group.

Thanks to the permanent communication with the lift controller, the service robot always knows if a lift with open doors is available to it. This information enables the service robot to decide independently whether to get in or request another lift. After a learning trip, the lift controller already knows which target floor has been selected and can reach it without intermediate stops.

Adjustment to fire protection concept

Jeeves is able to adjust dynamically to the fire protection concept of the hotel as a result of the flexibility of the cloud communication in combination with the lift controller. The exchange of current operating conditions of the lift controllers means the service robot is always informed whether fire evacuation is impending or being carried out.

In these cases, Jeeves decides according to the guidelines of the fire protection authority whether it can enter the lift or not. Even in situations where a lift is not available for transport, this is communicated to the service robot in real time. This can involve temporary maintenance work or passing malfunctions, which then impel Jeeves to leave the lift to request another.

The developer teams of the two companies came up with a flexible software interface. As a result, not just the current system modules bp308 and bp408 can be used. Böhnke + Partner lift controllers from the early 2000s can also be fitted with this software API. Consequently, over more than installed 30,000 lifts are already in operation today that can be retrofitted with this option are then "ready for Jeeves".

The author is a graduate IT specialist and head of product development at Böhnke + Partner GmbH control systems.

More information: boehnkepartner.de