Planning the behaviour of a social robot acting as a majordomo in public environments

Abstract

In this paper we propose the use of a social robot as a majordomo interface between users and Smart Environments. We focus, in particular, on the need for the robot to plan its behaviour by taking into account factors that are relevant in public environments in which the robot has a "social" role. In this context, once the situation has been recognized, the robot uses a probabilistic model to trigger social attitudes towards the user that influence, as a consequence, the activation of its high-level goals. According to the most probable goals, the behaviour plan is computed by applying a utility-based approach that allows selecting the most convenient actions in that situation. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.