Development of “RunRu”: a Sociable Vehicle combining Autonomy, Sociability, and Operability

Abstract

Self-driving cars are truly autonomous robots in that they control actuators based on information from a variety of sensors. When the autonomous driving system is adapted to be a “social robot”, what kind of interaction and communication with passengers will be possible? In this study, we propose “RunRu”, a Sociable Vehicle with autonomy, sociality, and operability, as a research platform for discussing these issues, and report the results of an experiment to evaluate its configuration.