IURO: Interactive Urban Robot (EU project)
The goal of the Interactive Urban Robot (IURO) project was to develop and implement methods and technologies that enable robots to navigate and interact in densely populated, unknown human-centred environments and retrieve information from human partners in order to achieve a given navigation or interaction goal.
The developed robot IURO navigates autonomously around the city-center of Munich and commences interaction with pedestrians. IURO approaches a person and asks for help to find the way to Marienplatz, a square in the Munich city center. People grasp a microphone from IURO’s compartment and start chatting with the robot. IURO starts the conversation with a question for the counterparts mood. By emotionally adapting to the reported mood, he attains the person’s full attention and successfully retrieves the information he is looking for. Besides verbal input, IURO also asks the interaction partner to point into the direction of the Marienplatz. Obviously, people enjoy the experience to interact with an autonomous mobile robot.