Development of a mobile museum guide robot that can configure spatial formation with visitors

Abstract

Museum guide robot is expected to establish a proper spatial formation known as "F-formation" with the visitors before starting its explanation of any exhibit. This paper presents a model for a mobile museum guide robot that can establish an F-formation appropriately and can employ "pause and restart" depending on the situation. We began by observing and videotaping scenes of actual museum galleries where human guides explain exhibits to visitors. Based on the analysis of the video, we developed a mobile robot system that can guide multiple visitors inside the gallery from one exhibit to another. The robot has the capability to establish the F-formation at the beginning of explanation after arriving near to any exhibit. The robot can also implement "pause and restart" depending on the situation at certain moment in its talk to first elicit the visitor's attention towards the robot. Experimental results suggest the efficacy of our proposed model. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.