In order to meet the increasing demands of mobile service robot applications, a dedicated perception module is an essential requirement for the interaction with users in real-world scenarios. In particular, multi sensor fusion and human re-identification are recognized as active research fronts. Through this paper we contribute to the topic and present a modular detection and tracking system that models position and additional properties of persons in the surroundings of a mobile robot. The proposed system introduces a probability-based data association method that besides the position can incorporate face and color-based appearance features in order to realize a re-identification of persons when tracking gets interrupted. The system combines the results of various state-of-the-art image-based detection systems for person recognition, person identification and attribute estimation. This allows a stable estimate of a mobile robot’s user, even in complex, cluttered environments with long-lasting occlusions. In our benchmark, we introduce a new measure for tracking consistency and show the improvements when face and appearance-based re-identification are combined. The tracking system was applied in a real world application with a mobile rehabilitation assistant robot in a public hospital. The estimated states of persons are used for the user-centered navigation behaviors, e.g., guiding or approaching a person, but also for realizing a socially acceptable navigation in public environments.

The aim of the MORPHIA (Mobile Robotic Care Assistant to Improve Participation, Care, Safety and Security in Home Care through a Video-Based Network of Caregivers) project (2020–23) was to develop a robot-assisted communication platform that supports video-based communication over spatial distance, taking into account the specific needs and requirements of older people and people with impairments living alone in their home environment, as well as their closer and broader care networks. Field studies with the communication robot in 13 private households in Germany over 283 days indicate that the developed system has the stability and functionality to operate in the seniors’ homes for several weeks without the assistance by technical staff. Beside the communication with the care network, the robot supported the seniors with their daily activities. The results indicate that all participants positively evaluated the overall concept of the MORPHIA system, both in terms of enhancing daily life quality and improving connections within their support network. Communication via the MORPHIA system has become more diverse and intensive and has led to an overall increase in digitally supported contacts. The presence contacts between the test persons in their home environment and their care networks have not been reduced as a result of using the MORPHIA system. This important finding indicates that the MORPHIA system is used as a complementary, non-substituitive robotic solution that works well within an overall framework of human relationships.