This paper describes a group attention control (GAC) system that enables a communication robot to simultaneously interact with many people. GAC is based on controlling social situations and indicating explicit control to unify all purposes of attention. We implemented a semi-autonomous GAC system into a communication robot that guides visitors to exhibits in a science museum and engages in free-play interactions with them. The GAC system's effectiveness was demonstrated in a two-week experiment in the museum. We believe these results will allow us to develop interactive humanoid robots that can interact effectively with groups of people.
Some researchers have developed projects which introduce group attention control, a system which allows robots to interact with a group of people REF .
Group attention control for communication robots with wizard of OZ approach
HRI '07
Computer Science