LG Business Solutions USA introduced the company’s first multi-purpose customer service robot, the LG CLOi GuideBot.

The new mobile robot is designed to operate in concierge and security operations, primarily for retail clients. The robot features two large vertical LCD touchscreens, one on the front and another on the rear of the robot.

The robot features a friendly digital face to engage users in an interaction. The robot can freely navigate throughout a facility, and lead visitors to specific areas of the facility. The entire robot is designed to revolutionize the customer experience virtually everywhere from museums and convention centers to movie theaters and hotels.

The LG CLOi GuideBot is making its official debut this week at InfoComm 2022 at Booth #N2029 in the Las Vegas Convention Center, alongside the LG CLOi ServeBot, an autonomous indoor delivery robot to carry and deliver food, goods and supplies.

“The GuideBot is the latest addition to the LG CLOi family of autonomous service robots, and it’s the first to tackle complex user interactions like answering voice questions, accompanying guests to their destination and tracking how many times a motion-activated advertisement is displayed in a day,” said Jeffrey Weiland, B2B robotics team leader at LG Business Solutions USA. “This robot can greet, inform and entertain customers in a variety of settings and situations, from museum exhibits and movie theaters to corporate offices and hospitals, all while gathering valuable data on usage that can be used to streamline operations and improve customer experiences.”

The LG CLOi GuideBot stands just under five feet tall and greets everyone with a friendly smile on a unique 9.2-inch LG LCD “face” display. Using a high-quality microphone, 3D camera and 18 sensors including LiDAR (light detection and ranging), ToF (time of flight), magnetic, bumpers and IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), the robot can navigate busy spaces and react to approaching users with visual and auditory effects.

Offering nine hours of operation and a quick five-hour charging time, this robot is a reliable assistant that can travel 2.2 miles per hour (1 m/s) to respond to changes in foot traffic or even physically guide individuals to their destination. The dual 27-inch LG touch screens, located on the front and back of the robot’s main body, provide bright, legible canvases for both interactive and static digital content, like menus, maps and videos.

Engaging with customers and patrons

LG CLOi GuideBot is customizable for various types of businesses:

• In hotels, the device can greet new guests and direct them to the elevators, the bar or answer questions about local attractions and restaurants.
• For museum patrons, it can deliver detailed exhibit information, including video content, interactive touch-based applications, sound playback and vocal recitation of written info.
• For a movie theater, it can advertise current movies, answer questions about movie start times and guide movie goers to the right theater.
• In a shopping mall, it can advertise for various businesses, and provide a mobile map of the mall for lost guests.
• In a hospital, it can help patients and families quickly locate services, amenities and specific departments.
• In a corporate setting, it can engage with employees, patrol a security route, guide visitors and answer questions. The robot has a “patrol” mode that navigates pre-planned paths and records surveillance video. In the future, teleoperation is expected to be added, which will allow security staff to “drive” the robot remotely to safely investigate security concerns.

“By reducing the human workload and automating some repetitive tasks such as giving visitors simple directions, our new robot can free employees to handle more demanding tasks and provide more attentive service,” Weiland said. “We can now envision museum tours being led by a friendly, responsive robot with access to vast catalogs of information and multimedia supplements to enhance exhibits and encourage deeper engagement and retention. At the same time, shopping malls can leverage GuideBot to provide basic security functions as well as wayfinding by escorting customers to stores.”

Mobile advertising is its super power

The advertisement feature can be used virtually anywhere the general public is present, so hotels can host ads for nearby attractions, or a movie theater can advertise its food and beverage offerings to people waiting in the ticket line. In conjunction with other LG CLOi robots, the GuideBot can form part of an always-on, data-rich ecosystem of autonomous assistants that lighten employee workloads and enhance safety.

The the dual screens can present different information at the same time. While one screen is providing a map of the facility to a patron, the other screen can deliver an advertisement.

LG CLOi GuideBot also collects data that includes interaction time, distance traveled, advertisement playback time, number of uses, specific data requested by users, the most common searches or questions, and all of it can be viewed in real-time or saved for review.

LG has developed a simple cloud interface to enable fast creation of graphics and messages, including menu templates, background images and more. The robot can deliver both on-screen and spoken announcements to inform guests that a store is closing or that hospital visiting hours are over.

In a hospitality setting, a custom menu on the touch screen could allow guests to book a spa appointment or make a reservation for a restaurant down the street.

The LG CLOi GuideBot offers language support for English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The robot is currently compatible with Hanwha, Platbread, Mindslab and Clobot solutions, making it easy to integrate with existing systems.