An approach to integrating an interactive guide robot with ubiquitous sensors

An interactive exhibition guide robot has been developed, that is integrated with ubiquitous sensors. The robot utilizes its human-like body properties to perform human-like gestures such as eye-contact and pointing. The ubiquitous sensors are embedded in an exhibition room or attached to people in the room, and they provide information not only for the robot's interactive guide but also for the development of the robot. The results of a two-days exhibition experiment show that the robot attracted visitors and successfully guided them in the environment. Moreover, the obtained interaction statistics, including video from the ubiquitous sensors, prove to be useful for analyzing the interaction between the robot and visitors, and this implies that the use of such interaction data is a promising approach for developing interactive robots.