Robox at Expo.02: A large-scale installation of personal robots

In this paper we present Robox, a mobile robot designed for operation in a mass exhibition environment and the experience we made so far with its installation at the Swiss National Exhibition expo.02. Robox is a fully autonomous mobile platform with unique multi-modal interaction capabilities and a novel approach to global localization using multiple Gaussian hypotheses. Here, we adopt an experimental view of the problem. After the problem specification of mass exhibitions, we briefly present issues regarding mechanical design, software architecture and safety. Special focus is then given to the multi-modal interaction system SOUL and the enhanced navigation system able to handle the highly dynamic environment of the exhibition. The paper will conclude with a presentation of preliminary results of the robot’s performance and the visitor’s experience. By the end of August 2002, the ten Robox already guided over half a million visitors through the Robotics pavilion at the Swiss National Exhibition expo.02, eleven hours per day, seven days a week. By the end of expo.02, nearly one million peoples will have been in contact with a personal robot for the first time in their life. The scale of the installation and the enhanced and fully autonomous navigation and interaction of the robots make this project a milestone in mobile robotics research. It serves as an extraordinary research platform and enables to better understand the needs and concerns of the public in respect with future of personal robot technology.