Robots in Exhibitions: Proceedings Workshop WS9
Kai Oliver Arras, Wolfram Burgard · Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) · 2002
It is interesting to see the variety of exhibition types, tasks and objectives of these projects.We can structure them according to several criteria: First, there is the exhibition type 1 • technical museums ( Rhino , Minerva , Museum of Communication Berlin, Hermes) • natural science museums ( Mobot museum robots) • art museums ( Kapros) • trade shows ( Diligent , Blacky) • mass exhibitions ( Expo 2000 , Expo.02) • museums in general ( Tourbot , Webfair)Each context poses specific technical, financial, artistic or educational problems.In mass exhibitions, for example, visitor flow, that is, the number of visitors the exhibition can serve per hour is an issue which is much less important in museums.Second, decisive for the role of the robot in the exhibition is the exhibition's message • robotics-related (e.g.Expo.02,Hermes) • robotics-external (e.g.Mobot museum robots, Kapros, Expo 2000)In the latter case, the robot is the medium of this message.Appearance and interaction have to be designed under this perspective.It might have an educational task and the robot-specific properties are not the primary concern.In the former case, that is, the robot itself is part of the message or is the message, more playful interaction scenarios can be appropriate.So far, robots have done the following tasks in exhibitions • tour-giving (Rhino, Minerva, Mobot museum robots, Museomobile, Expo.02) • entertainment and animation (Museum of Communication Berlin, Diligent , Blacky) • education (Mobot museum robots, Museum of Communication Berlin) • picture taking (Expo.02)• tele-presence (Kapros, Tourbot, Webfair) • interactive art object (Expo 2000) • demonstrations (Hermes) The projects further differ in the number of robots • single-robot events: (Rhino , Mobot museum robots, Minerva , Diligent , Blacky, Kapros, Hermes, Museomobil) • multi-robot events: (Expo 2000 with 72 robots , Expo.02 with 10 robots, Museum of Communication Berlin with 3 robots) Finally, the duration of the deployement varies • several days (Rhino, Diligent, Blacky) • several weeks (Minerva, Kapros) • several months (Expo 2000, Expo.02,Hermes, Museomobil) • several years (Mobot museum robots, Museum of Communication Berlin) 1.The project names refer to the papers in these proceedings (by number in the table of contents): Blacky [11], Diligent [7], Expo 2000 [15], Expo.