Development of An Autonomous Guide Robot Based on Active Interactions with Users

An autonomous guide robot based on active interactions with users has been developed. Here, active interactions mean that the users can ask the robot to wait for them, explain contents around, etc. The robot can adjust its speed and moving path automatically to adapt to the motions of users so that it can provide considerate services to the users. The robot is controlled by a general control model based on integrated potential field, by which the robot can adapt to different motions of users without changing the moving rules case by case. The effectiveness of our proposed method is proven by both simulation and experiments where the users are guided by a robot under indoor environments.