How Many Social Robots Can One Operator Control?

This study explores the nature of the multi-robot control problem for social robots. It begins by modeling the overall structure of a human-robot team for social interactions, and implements it for specific application to dialog-based interactions. Operator activity during control of a social robot is studied. Customer satisfaction is proposed as an important metric for evaluating the performance of a human-robot team for social interactions with customers. Based on the modeling, fan-out of a social robot team can be calculated, and the performance of the team is estimated by simulation. A field trial was conducted in a shopping mall to demonstrate a successful deployment of social robots for a real-world application with ensured performance prior to installation using our modeling and simulation approach.