Wizard of Oz revisited: Researching on a tour guide robot while being faced with the public

Abstract

In this paper, we propose the usage of a Wizard of Oz to facilitate the first steps towards a tour-guide robot in a real world environment. In particular, we want to emphasize two essential aspects during such an early project phase. On the one hand, to ensure certain basic skills of the robot (e.g. navigation and interaction), suitable methods have to be selected. On the other hand, insights about the requirements of further developments have to be accumulated. At the same time, it should be avoided to annoy the visitors of the museum by malfunctioning systems. Hence, the robot has to appear to be performing flawlessly. Thus, in such early project stages, we suggest to substitute the still missing parts of the robot by a human operator.