Welcome to HRI 2024 Robot Challenge

Designing Social Robots in the Wild

HRI Competition 1: The Robot Waiter

At HRI 2024, we imagine a dining experience where dining out is not just about the food, but also the exciting experience of being served by a robot waiter. To shape this future, we challenge the HRI community to bring innovation and efficiency to the restaurant industry through The Robot Waiter competition.

In this competition, the objective is for a robot to take a drink order from a person, navigate to a bar, communicate the drink order to a human bartender, safely grasp the drink and bring it back to the person who ordered it, and hand it over in a safe and appropriate manner. This task requires the robot to perform a range of complex actions, such as object recognition, path planning, and grasping, while ensuring the safety of any people and objects in the environment and following appropriate social norms. Overall, this task challenges the robot's ability to perform useful tasks in a real-world setting and interact effectively with humans.

Competition Environment

The competition arena will be set up to represent a simplified restaurant area containing a table where a person, representing a dining patron, will be seated and a bar area where a human bartender can serve drinks. Typical restaurant objects (cups, plates, silverware, menus, etc.) and miscellaneous items (e.g., trashcans, plants, restaurant decor) will be present in the environment.

Protocol

Each trial will have three main phases: (1) greeting and taking the order, (2) fetching the order, and (3) delivering the order. Detailed information about each phase, including desired outcomes and scoring information, is provided below:

Pre-trial Preparation:

• The referees will set up the environment as described above, consisting of a dining table with chairs, a bar area, and other miscellaneous items (e.g., plants, trashcan, etc.).
• The competition team will notify the referees if they wish to try for any of the bonus points.
• Two volunteers will be guided by the referees to act as the humans in the competition. One will be chosen to act as the diner and the other to act as the bartender. The diner will be seated at a table and the bartender will be standing at the bar area and shown the various drinks that might be served.
• The robot will be positioned in a starting position that will be fixed for all trials approximately 20’ from the diner.
• Other volunteers might be present in the environment and may move through it during the challenge, simulating other waiters or diners moving through the restaurant.
• The trial begins when the referees give the competition team a signal to start.

Phase 1: Greeting and Taking the Order:

• In this phase, the robot needs to identify where the diner is seated, approach and greet the diner, and take their drink order. The robot should accomplish this task while behaving in a socially acceptable manner (e.g., approach speeds and distances, providing a polite greeting, asking to take an order, etc.).
• When responding to the robot, the diner can respond in one of three ways (A, B, or C):
• A: The person may respond by verbally specifying their drink order X.
• In this case, the robot should confirm that it understands that the user is ordering drink X.
• B: The person may respond by asking what the drink options are.
• In this case, the robot should list the drink options, which are:
• Coke
• Sprite
• Dr. Pepper
• C: The person may respond by asking the robot what it recommends.
• In this case, the robot might suggest an option X from the known list, query the person to ask them what their tastes are, or some other socially appropriate behavior.
• All responses will ultimately result in A, where the diner eventually specifies their drink order X to the robot. At this time, the robot should confirm the drink order and begin the next phase.

Desired outcome: The robot announces that it is going to pick up order X for the diner.

Phase 2: Fetching the Order

• In this phase, the robot must navigate to the bar, communicate order X to the bartender, and grasp the drink after the bartender places it on the bar.
• To navigate to the bar, the robot must move in a socially appropriate and safe manner through the restaurant environment, which may include other obstacles such as plants or moving people, simulating other customers or waiters.
• The robot should communicate the order to the bartender in a clear manner.
• The bartender will place the drink on the bar, which the robot must identify and grasp.
• The bartender may place the wrong drink - bonus points will be awarded for recognizing the bartender’s error and confirming the order. If the robot notices and notifies the bartender of the error, the bartender will take back the drink and replace it with the correct drink.
• The phase ends once the robot has grasped the drink.

Desired outcome: The robot is holding drink order X at the bar.

Phase 3: Delivering the Order

• In this phase, the robot must navigate back to the diner while carrying the drink, then serve the drink to the diner. Specifically, the robot must:
• Safely navigate back to the diner without spilling the drink
• Approach the diner
• If the diner is busy, interrupt the diner in a socially appropriate manner and announce that it has the diner’s order
• ○ The person may respond in two ways:
• The diner may indicate that the robot should place the drink on the table in front of them
• The diner may reach for the drink, in which case the robot should initiate a handover. Successfully completing a handover will award the team bonus points./li>
• The phase ends once the robot has grasped the drink.

Desired outcome: The diner has received their order X

Expected Duration

The maximum time for a trial is 20 minutes. The time starts when the referees signal to the competition team that the challenge is beginning and stops when the diner successfully has received their order or if any fail conditions occur.

Scoring

Points for completing each subtask (order taking, fetching the order, and delivery) will be a combination of interaction outcomes and a behavioral score for social appropriateness, with completion time used to break ties. Scores may be reduced by penalties for errors in each phase. Failure conditions may result in the phase or trial ending early without the possibility of accruing additional points. The interaction outcomes are based on technical achievements of how successfully each phase is accomplished. The behavioral score will be based on the behavioral scoring table below.

Interaction Outcome Scoring:

Interaction Phase	Action	Scoring
Phase 1	(1 point) The robot identifies and navigates to the diner	1 point
	(1 point) The robot greets the diner	1 point
	(3 points) The robot successfully gets the order and confirms it by stating “I am going to the bar to get your X order”	3 points
Phase 2	(1 point) The robot identifies and navigates to the bar	1 point
	(1 point) The robot communicates the order to the bartender	1 point
	(3 points) The robot successfully picks up the drink order	3 points
	(Optional 2 bonus points): The robot notices that the bartender has provided the wrong order and notifies the bartender of this error	2 bonus points
Phase 3	(1 point) The robot successfully brings the order back to the diner	1 point
	(1 or 3 points) The robot serves the order to the diner (1 point for placing the drink in front of the diner on the table, 3 points for a successful handover of the drink to the diner).	1 or 3 points

Behavioral Scoring:

Action	Scoring
Penalties will be assessed as follows:
(-.5 points) The robot collides with any obstacles (walls, furniture, etc.)	-.5 points
(-.5 points) The robot drops the order	-.5 points
(-1 point) The robot stops responding	-1 point
(-1 point) The robot stops working	-1 point
Disqualification:
The robot behaves in a manner that threatens the safety of any of the volunteers, referees, or spectators	Disqualified
The robot behaves in a manner that might damage the environment or itself	Disqualified

Overall Score:

The overall score will be calculated as (Interaction Outcome Score + Behavioral Score - Penalties) / 2. In the event of ties, the team with the faster time will be ranked first.