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.

Deploying social robots in museum settings: A quasi-systematic review exploring purpose and acceptability

“…The 12 included studies were published from 2011 to 2019. Seven were published as conference proceedings/papers, 8,10,16,20 –23 four as journal articles 9,17,24,25 and one as a book chapter. 26…”

“…surveys, coded video recordings), except for two 8,21 which collected both qualitative and quantitative data. Four were conducted in Germany, 8,9,21,23 three in Japan 16,17,25 and one in each of the following countries: United Kingdom, 10 Australia, 24 Israel, 26 South Korea 22 and the United States. 20 Most (67%, n = 8) were conducted in real-life museum settings, including science, art, technology, space, robotics and migration museums.…”

“…20 Most (67%, n = 8) were conducted in real-life museum settings, including science, art, technology, space, robotics and migration museums. 9,16,20 –24,26 Three (25%) were conducted in simulated museum settings in university laboratories 8,10,25 and one (8%) used both simulated and real-life settings. 17 Across the studies, a total of 2405 children and adults participated to evaluate the robots, ranging from individual sample sizes of six 17 to 1607 participants.…”

“…The remaining studies all used one robot. Three used NAO, 8,21,23 two used Robovie 16,25 and one each used the following robots: RoboThespian, 26 Robotinho, 9 Baxter 24 and P3 DX. 10 Figure 2 shows some of the robots that were used.…”

“…Regarding autonomy and mobility, five studies used autonomous robots, 17,20,21,23,25 two did not state the level of autonomy 16,22 and one used Wizard-of-Oz. 10 Four studies used autonomous features (e.g.…”