A Drink-Serving Mobile Social Robot Selects who to Interact with Using Gaze

Abstract

Robots will soon deliver food and beverages in various environments. These robots will need to communicate their intention efficiently; for example, they should indicate who they are addressing. We conducted a real-world study of a water serving robot at a university cafeteria. The robot was operated in a Wizard-of-Oz manner. It approached and offered water to students having their lunch. Our analyses of the relationship between robot gaze direction and the likelihood that someone takes a drink show that if people do not already have a drink and the interaction is not dominated by an overly enthusiastic user, the robot's gaze behavior is effective in selecting an interaction partner even "in the wild".