ABSTRACT
The fundamental issues of human–robot interaction are in the real world. This chapter focuses on a field trial with interactive humanoid robots at a science museum where visitors are encouraged to study and develop an interest in science. In the trial, each participating visitor wore an radio frequency identification (RFID) tag while looking around the museum’s exhibits. Information obtained from the RFID tags was used to direct the robots’ interaction with the visitors. All ubiquitous sensor data and robots’ sensor data were recorded in the database with a time stamp; personal information and movement histories were also recorded. These data were used for deciding robots’ behavior, interacting with visitors, and analyzing the results of experiments. “Robovie” is an interactive humanoid robot characterized by its human-like physical expressions and its various sensors. The reason used humanoid robots is because a human-like body is useful for naturally holding the attention of humans.
