Direct and indirect social robot interactions in a hotel public space

This paper presents a study using multiple robots with different socially interactive functionalities in a hotel public space. We analyzed the human attitude toward different styles of interactions with robots, and assessed the use of those robots. We conducted comparative experiments in different settings: (i) Two single robots, Palro and Nao, were used separately to detect the presence of guests and greet them, compared with the same function performed by a hotel-staff. (ii) Twin robots Gemini, as well as dual Naos, engaged in an informative conversation about the hotel, compared with a recorded video of the conversation being displayed on a TV set. In each case, the guest-behavior was studied by using three categories that define the level of a guest's attention. Several statistical significances were found from the results of experiments, which helped to understand the differences between using robot agents and common approaches in the hotel public space.