Development of Four Kinds of Mobile Robot with Preliminary-Announcement and Indication Function of Upcoming Operation

Abstract

We propose approaches and equipment for preliminarily announcing and indicating to people the speed and direction of movement of mobile robots moving on a two-dimensional plane. We introduce the four approaches categorized into (1) announcing the state just after the present and (2) indicating operations from the present to some future time continuously. To realize the approaches, we use omni-directional display (PMR-2), flat-panel display (PMR-6), laser pointer (PMR-1), and projection equipment (PMR-5) for the announcement unit of protobots. The four protobots were exhibited at the 2005 International Robot Exhibition (iREX05). We had visitors answer questionnaires in a 5-stage evaluation. The projector robot PMR-5 received the highest evaluation score among the four. An examination of differences by gender and age suggested that some people prefer simple information, friendly expressions, and a minimum of information to be presented at one time.