An Initiative Service Method Based on Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process and Context Intention Inference for Drinking Service Robot

Abstract

To ensure that people can replenish the right amount of water when they are short of it, an initiative service method based on the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) and context intention inference for the drinking service robot is proposed, in which the factors that affect people’s drinking demand including individual factors (e.g., physical activity, age, and gender) and environmental factors (e.g., temperature and humidity) are taken into account for drinking service. In addition, a two-level hierarchy structure for human intention together with intention degree is proposed, in which weights between context features and intention are calculated by FAHP, which imitates human’s subjective judgment process mathematically and mentally. Moreover, the relationship between human intention and their demands is established by a demand analysis model for providing satisfactory service of robots. Drinking service experiments are performed in a laboratory scenario using a humans–robots interaction system, from which the experimental results show that the resultant ${p}$ -value in Condition 1 is 0.455, and the resultant ${p}$ -value in Condition 2 is 0.09, and the averaged values of satisfaction feedback are 2.15 and 1.85 (satisfaction from 1 to 5 decreased in turn), respectively, approximately satisfied, which demonstrates the feasibility of the proposal.