Guidance of a person by scaling the image projected from a mobile robot

In this paper, we propose a new method to guide a person to an exhibition using a mobile robot with a projector. It has been reported that conventional guide robots cannot control the position of people around the robot; for example, when people gather around a robot, it becomes difficult to move. Robots had to explicitly instruct people to move by voice or display, saying, "Please make way." or "Please move there." However, repeated such explicit instructions are not comfortable for us. In this study, we propose a method to guide a person by scaling projected images using a mobile robot with a projector. Based on the tendency that we naturally move to the place where the projected explanation is easy to see, the proposed guiding behaviors can guide a person away from the robot or move the robot while keeping the person in the place. Preliminary experimental results showed that the person tends to be guided by the proposed method without explicit indication.