W. Burgard, A.B. Cremers, D. Fox, D. Hähnel,G. Lakemeyer, D. Schulz, W. Steiner, and S. Thrun

Experiences with an Interactive Museum Tour-Guide Robot

Artificial Intelligence


 

Abstract

This article describes the software architecture of anautonomous, interactive tour-guide robot. It presents a modular,distributed software architecture, which integrates localization,mapping, collision avoidance, planning, and various modules concernedwith user interaction. The approach does not require any modificationsto the environment. To cope with the various challengesin dynamic andill-structured environments, the software relies on probabilistic computation, on-line learning, any-time algorithms, and distributedcontrol. Special emphasis has been placed on the design of interactivecapabilities that appeal to people's intuition. In mid-1997, the robotwas successfully deployed in a densely populated museum, demonstratingreliable operation in hazardous public environments, and raising themuseum's attendance by more than 50%. In addition, people all overthe world controlled the robot through the Web.

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Bibtex

@Article{Bur00Exp,
  AUTHOR  = {Burgard, W. and  Cremers, A.B. and Fox, D. and  H{\"a}hnel, D. and Lakemeyer,G. and  Schulz, D. and  Steiner, W. and Thrun, S.},
  TITLE   = {Experiences with an Interactive Museum Tour-Guide Robot},
  JOURNAL = {ArtificialIntelligence},
  VOLUME  = {114},
  NUMBER  = {1-2},
  YEAR    = {2000}
}