Synchronization of mobile robot´s movement and preliminary announcement using omni-directional display

Human-friendly robot which supports and assists human being directly beside human being is expected as it has become an aging and decrease-in-the-birthrate society. In addition to the safety function to avoid dangers for human being, we think the informational affinity function is important such as to announce surrounding people the robot´s following motion before beginning to move. A person can anticipate and guess other´s motion considering human body´s functional features and behavioral pattern as common sense. This paper discusses the preliminary announcement and display function of mobile robot´s following motion , the direction of motion and the speed of motion, by using a omni-directional display, magicball (R). We have been developing the mobile robot PMR-2 which tells its following action with eyeball expressions.