Dear Colleagues,

The definition of "Intelligent Space" (IS) was formerly proposed for an environmental system capable of offering humans informative and physical support. Currently an IS denotes a space containing human and artificial systems, the space itself being considered an intelligent system. Human and artificial systems become clients of the IS and simultaneously the artificial systems become agents of the IS.

Since the whole space is an intelligent system, it is able to monitor and provide services to many different clients with ease. For example, an IS uses computer monitors to provide information to humans, then robots are used to provide physical services to them as physical agents.

When a robot lacks the sensors required to navigate around an IS, the robot is treated as a client and the information lacking is provided to the robot by the IS.

An IS has two roles in relation to a robot working inside it. One is the enhancement of ability, the other the sharing of resources.

Resource sharing is valid when more than one robot uses the resources of an IS. Also, robots can decrease or eliminate such on-board resources as positioning sensors, sensors for detecting target objects, devices for interaction with humans, etc. However, an IS does not aim to make sensors redundant or reduce robot autonomy; rather, it supports robots with inadequate resources by providing the resources they lack in order to behave as a normal robot, while it helps robots with good resources to behave as even better robots.

Prof. Dr. José L. Lázaro-Galilea
Dr. Ignacio Bravo-Muñoz
Dr. Alfredo Gardel-Vicente
Guest Editor