Towards a more anthropomorphic interaction with robots in museum settings: An experimental study

In recent years, social robots have been increasingly used in the cultural sector to make artworks and exhibits more appealing to a larger audience. On the other hand, visitors, more accustomed to using novel technologies, are increasingly attracted to the possibility of exploiting new ways of interaction. However, more research needs to be done on how social robots successfully interact verbally and non-verbally with visitors. There are few studies on the impact of these technologies and, in particular, a greater level of involvement in using social robots instead of the more usual voice apps to access interactively and acquire information about a work of art or a museum exhibition. This paper proposes a human–robot interaction system based on a three-level architecture able to process and merge heterogeneous sensory information and obtain a set of anthropomorphic mechanisms and metaphors to make the interaction with visitors in museum settings as natural as possible. Moreover, an experimental study has been proposed to assess the impact of this proposed solution, embedded in the social robot Pepper, on museum visitors in the context of an exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci. In particular, the study first aimed to find a potential difference in the interactions between visitors grouped by age and interfacing with the robot equipped with the proposed system or a voice app. Secondly, the study focused on evaluating the effectiveness and usefulness of the robot equipped with the proposed interaction system. A comparative User Experience was conducted between the robot and voice app and a User Experience only for the robot using a specific questionnaire for robotic applications. The results showed a good ability of the proposed system integrated into the robot to make interaction with visitors more pleasant, attractive, and friendly. Engagement and dialogue with them are more natural, stable, and lasting. The cultural information is conveyed more easily and clearly.