Social interaction with visitors: mobile guide robots capable of offering a museum tour

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a mobile museum guide (MG) robot capable of creating and controlling spatial formations with visitors in different situations. Although much research has already been conducted in the area of nonverbal communication between guide robots and humans, the creation and controlling of spatial formations with multiple visitors is a fundamental function for MG robots that remains unexplored. Drawing upon psychological and sociological studies on the spatial relationships between humans, it is evident that to be effective MG robots should also possess the capability to create and control spatial formations in various situations. A MG robot needs to establish a spatial formation to initiate interaction with the visitors; a spatial formation is a prerequisite before the robot can begin explaining an exhibit. Moreover, the guide robot must be able to identify interested bystanders and invite them into an ongoing explanation session, necessitating a reconfiguring of the spatial formation. Finally, the robot must be able to do this while continuing to explain multiple exhibits in a cohesive fashion. To devise a system capable of meeting these needs, we began by observing and videotaping scenes of actual museum galleries. Based on analyzing these data, we found that MG creates spatial formation with the visitors in a systematic way. We then developed a mobile robot system able to create and control spatial formations while guiding multiple visitors. A particle filter framework is employed to track the visitors' positions and body orientations and the orientations of their heads. We then evaluated the guide robot system in a series of experiments that focused on different situations where a guide robot creates a spatial formation with visitors. © 2019 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.