Visitor Companion Robot: Navigation and Human-Robot Interaction under Uncertainty

In this paper, we describe an indoor robot capable of autonomous localization and navigation that serves as a companion to a human visitor. We contribute a fully-functional robot that can localize itself using static wireless nodes, manage its own uncertainty, and ask humans for help when needed. We define the indoor map as a graph embedded in the Cartesian plane with an associated matrix of learned wireless signal strengths. The localization algorithm uses the sensed wireless signals and the map constraints to generate a belief about possible locations of the robot. In addition to its own state, the robot must maintain uncertain hypotheses about the visitor’s state and the task state. It must reason about these uncertain beliefs in order to successfully execute its task, which sometimes requires querying the visitor for assistance. The robot can also interact with other humans, such as a meeting host or administrative assistant, to better manage the visit. We present illustrations of our visitor companion robot effectively interacting with the visitor while performing a variety of behaviors in support of the task of visitor companionship.