A Theoretical Approach to Designing Interactive Robots, Using Restaurant Assistants as an Example

Within restaurant settings, robotic assistants are required to interact with different users in different scenarios. Adaptive behavior is essential when providing quality services, facilitating natural interactions, and influencing perceptions on social intelligence, helpfulness, and willingness to accept recommendations. Informed by our previous review on culturalization/localization and personalization in the field of human-robot interaction, this paper exemplifies how to apply relevant knowledge on communication and language, behavior and service, proxemics, and interface design, to propose a design strategy for an adaptable restaurant robot. The prospective robot is intended to be able to adapt its behaviors and speech to different users across different restaurant settings and countries. Specifically, the robot will respond to four common scenarios within restaurant settings: greeting customers, making simple recommendations, providing assistance and giving directions. Technical solutions are also considered and include: 1) mechanical design, 2) navigation and localization system, 3) perception, 4) speech, 5) gestures and 6) additional tools.