Robotic companion lead the way

During last years, robotic research has explored Human-Robot interactions especially for the challenge of the robot companion. This type of robot would be equipped with perception, motion, and manipulation among other skills, to be help humans in daily tasks. Guidance is one of the tasks that the robot companion must perform. This paper describes Robbie, a wheeled robot companion uses for guiding missions. The Robbie combines visual clues, voice, distance and PC input to detect humans and features in the environment. To complete its task Robbie could receive extra information from smart beacons located in the building. The paper also explores two modalities to the guiding missions. Finally, experiments are presented in order to highlight the relevance of the approach.