  Lio is a mobile robot platform with a multi-functional arm explicitly
designed for human-robot interaction and personal care assistant tasks. The
robot has already been deployed in several health care facilities, where it is
functioning autonomously, assisting staff and patients on an everyday basis.
Lio is intrinsically safe by having full coverage in soft artificial-leather
material as well as having collision detection, limited speed and forces.
Furthermore, the robot has a compliant motion controller. A combination of
visual, audio, laser, ultrasound and mechanical sensors are used for safe
navigation and environment understanding. The ROS-enabled setup allows
researchers to access raw sensor data as well as have direct control of the
robot. The friendly appearance of Lio has resulted in the robot being well
accepted by health care staff and patients. Fully autonomous operation is made
possible by a flexible decision engine, autonomous navigation and automatic
recharging. Combined with time-scheduled task triggers, this allows Lio to
operate throughout the day, with a battery life of up to 8 hours and recharging
during idle times. A combination of powerful on-board computing units provides
enough processing power to deploy artificial intelligence and deep
learning-based solutions on-board the robot without the need to send any
sensitive data to cloud services, guaranteeing compliance with privacy
requirements. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lio was rapidly adjusted to perform
additional functionality like disinfection and remote elevated body temperature
detection. It complies with ISO13482 - Safety requirements for personal care
robots, meaning it can be directly tested and deployed in care facilities.
