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This study examined the effect of brand modernity on brand love. In addition, this study investigated how brand love affects behavioral intentions including intentions to use, word-of-mouth and willingness to pay more. Lastly, this study explored the differences between robot servers and human servers in the five concepts mentioned above.

Data were collected from 300 people who experienced robot servers and from 318 people who experienced human servers.

The results of data analysis revealed that brand modernity has a positive influence on brand love, which in turn positively affects intentions to use, word-of-mouth and willingness to pay more. Additionally, it was found that there were statistical differences with the mean value of the five concepts based on the type of employee, such as robot servers and human servers.

Unlike prior research, the difference between robot servers and human servers was investigated by focusing more on the brand in this study, and such findings can be considered as important theoretical implications of this study.

This study aims to examine the differences among memorable brand experience, brand preference and behavioral intentions based on the type of service providers, such as robot servers and human servers. In addition, this study investigated the relationships among the four concepts.

The data was collected from 296 customers who experienced robot servers and from 307 customers who experienced human servers.

The data analysis results indicated that there was a statistical difference with the mean value of the five concepts according to the type of employee. The results also revealed that memorable brand experience has a positive influence on brand preference, which in turn positively influences intentions to use, word-of-mouth and willingness to pay more.

This study attempted to find the difference between robot servers and human servers in memorable brand experience, brand preference and behavioral intentions in the restaurant industry for the first time.

本研究旨在根据服务提供商的类型（例如机器人服务员和人工服务员）检查令人难忘的品牌体验、品牌偏好和行为意图之间的差异。 此外, 本研究调查了四个概念之间的关系。

数据收集自 296 名体验过机器人服务器的客户和 307 名体验过人工服务器的客户。

数据分析结果表明, 根据员工类型, 五个概念的平均值存在统计差异。 结果还表明, 难忘的品牌体验对品牌偏好有积极影响, 进而对使用意向、口碑和支付更多的意愿产生积极影响。

这项研究首次试图找出机器人服务员和人工服务员在餐饮业令人难忘的品牌体验、品牌偏好和行为意图方面的差异。

This paper aims to develop a service‐oriented distributed multi‐robot system based on manufacturing message specification (MMS) and new‐generation distributed object technology – web services for realizing remotely monitoring and controlling multiple heterogeneous robots in the internet environment.

The study presents robot communication model and distributed multi‐robot monitoring and control software structure based on MMS and web services. In particular, monitoring and control software design of MMS concepts in web services environment using Unified Modeling Language model is discussed in detail. In addition, to verify the validity of the proposed design method, a multi‐robot prototype system for robot flexible assemble cell has been achieved. Its Server software is implemented in C++ with Visual Studio.NET being the development environment and Client software is programmed in Java with Borland JBuilder 9 being the development tool.

Finds that the communication structure following MMS can make the multi‐robot monitoring and control system have perfect robustness, interoperability and reconfigurability. Besides, web services technology can conveniently realize MMS services, also can successfully resolve the remote multi‐robot monitoring and control problem among cross‐network, cross‐platform and heterogeneous systems.

Provides an easy and low‐cost method for realizing heterogeneous multi‐robot remote driving. The web‐based distribution of the presented system is critical in enabling capabilities such as e‐manufacturing, e‐diagnostics and e‐maintenance.

The proposed system can be seamlessly integrated into other automated manufacturing systems or management systems in plug‐and‐play fashion. The combination of MMS and web services is in favor of real manufacturing equipments being embedded in the network, so the presented systematic methodology can be a useful reference for constructing web‐based reconfigurable manufacturing systems.

Provides robot communication model based on MMS and web services and presents service‐oriented distributed remote multi‐robot monitoring and control software architecture.

The purpose of this paper is to present a distributed multiple mobile robot system that provides a collaborative control and simulation environment.

A CORBA‐based cooperative system is designed to implement a robotic layered cooperative mechanism. The mechanism has three layers: mission, transport and execution. In order to realize a flexible and effective communication in the cooperative mechanism, an extended robot event service (federated event service) is proposed to improve the cooperative system's real time performance.

Experimentation has proved the validity and effectiveness of the system. The federated event service's latency is approximately 9 percent less than the standard event service latency when the CPU is determined.

The robotic modularized system includes the map‐building, path‐planning, robot task‐planning, simulation and actual robot control function modules, and uses CORBA to integrate the whole system. It is easy to implement a layered cooperative mechanism for multiple mobile robots. Given the problem on multiple robots cooperation latency, a useful extended robot event service is proposed.

The paper focuses on the distributed functional modular architecture, and the multiple robots cooperative layered mechanism. In the mechanism, an extended robot event service (federated event service) is proposed to reduce the cooperative system's real time latency. The conducted experiment validates the proposed system with a good performance for multiple mobile robots' cooperation.

Today’s Internet technology provides a convenient way for us to develop an integrated network environment for the diversified applications of different robotic systems. To be successful in real‐world applications, Internet‐based robots require a high degree of autonomy and local intelligence to deal with the restricted bandwidth and arbitrary transmission delay of the Internet. This paper describes the first step toward building such an Internet‐based robotic system for teleoperation in the University of Essex. The system has a standard network protocol and an interactive human‐machine interface. Using a Web browser, a remote operator can control the mobile robot to navigate in our laboratory with visual feedback and a simulated environment map via the Internet. The employment of an intuitive user interface enables Internet users to control the mobile robot and implement useful tasks remotely. Although at its first stage, the developed system has the potential to be extended to many real‐world applications such as tele‐manufacturing, tele‐training and tele‐service.

This paper aims to explore theme park visitors’ attitudes toward interacting with robots and investigated the qualities and functions of robotic servers and their influence on customers’ loyalty. A structural equation modeling approach was used to identify the complex relationships among variables in the entire network.

An online survey randomly assigned respondents to four different robotic server scenarios with robots that look like humans, animals, cartoon characters and anime features. The influence of robot types was investigated by manipulating robot type with four different pictures; however, the data were analyzed with a structural equation modeling model to identify the complex relationships rather than one-way analysis of variance to identify influences of robot types on different variables in separate analyzes.

The data collected from the 385 experienced theme park visitors revealed that perception of robots with human orientation and safety qualities had the strongest effect on the perceived robotic functionality, while emotions and co-creation qualities hardly had any effect on the perceived functionality, which included utilitarian rather than experiential functions such as excitement. Human orientation qualities, regardless of the specific robotic design, had a significant impact on perceived robotic functionality. The study also revealed a strong positive influence of perceived robotic functionality on customer loyalty.

The debate of whether or not to introduce and blend the growing robotic technology into the theme park experience is in its infancy. The study contributes to the theory of how robotics qualities and functions can augment customer loyalty.

The fundamental purpose of building simulation models is because it is often impossible to experiment with real‐world systems. In terms of our networked robots in the automotive welding and assembly lines, simulating possible scenarios, both for design as well as for operation control purposes, is very important for the design team, as well as for management, due to the per‐minute‐cost of every failed robotic operation. In order to support, both the design as well as the management community of such systems, in this article, we discuss a generic simulation methodology, using the IT‐Guru OPNET simulation program, as well as show practical results, that demonstrate the benefits of simulation methods.

Drawing on person–environment fit theory, this study aims to investigate how the relationships between service task types (i.e. utilitarian and hedonic service tasks) and perceived authenticity (i.e. service and brand authenticity) differ under different conditions of service providers (human employee vs service robot). This study further examines whether customers’ stereotypes toward service robots (competence vs warmth) moderate the relationship between service types and perceived authenticity.

Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design, Study 1 examines a casual restaurant, whereas Study 2 assesses a theme park restaurant. Analysis of covariance and PROCESS are used to analyze the data.

Both studies reveal that human service providers in hedonic services positively affect service and brand authenticity more than robotic employees. Additionally, the robot competence stereotype moderates the relationship between hedonic services, service and brand authenticity, whereas the robot warmth stereotype moderates the relationship between hedonic services and brand authenticity in Study 2.

Restaurant managers need to understand which functions and types of service outlets are best suited for service robots in different service contexts. Robot–environment fit should be considered when developers design and managers select robots for their restaurants.

This study blazes a new theoretical trail of service robot research to systematically propose customer experiences with different service types by drawing upon person–environment fit theory and examining the moderating role of customers’ stereotypes toward service robots.

This paper aims to present a teleoperation system that allows one to control a group of mobile robots in a collaborative manner. In order to show the capabilities of the collaborative teleoperation system, it seeks to present a task where the operator collaborates with a robot team to explore a remote environment in a coordinated manner. The system implements human‐robot interaction by means of natural language interfaces, allowing one to teleoperate multiple mobile robots in an unknown, unstructured environment. With the supervision of the operator, the robot team builds a map of the environment with a vision‐based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technique. The approach is well suited for search and rescue tasks and other applications where the operator may guide the exploration of the robots to certain areas in the map.

In opposition with a master‐slave scheme of teleoperation, an exploration mechanism is proposed that allows one to integrate the commands expressed by a human operator in an exploration task, where the actions expressed by the human operator are taken as an advice. In consequence, the robots in the remote environment choose their movements that improve the estimation of the map and best suit the requirements of the operator.

It is shown that the collaborative mechanism presented is suitable to control a robot team that explores an unstructured environment. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate the validity of the approach.

The system implements human‐robot interaction by means of natural language interfaces. The robots are equipped with stereo heads and are able to find stable visual landmarks in the environment. Based on these visual landmarks, the robot team is able to build a map of the environment using a vision‐based SLAM technique. SONAR proximity sensors are used to avoid collisions and find traversable ways. The robot control architecture is based on common object request broker architecture technology and allows one to operate a group of robots with dissimilar features.

This work extends the concept of collaborative teleoperation to the exploration of a remote environment using a team of mobile robots.

The Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags constitute a set of instruments that can be used to instruct software robots. However, the current version of Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags are both too simple and ambiguous in an internet world with many potential conflicts, especially in terms of copyright and trespass to chattels. This paper seeks to propose an amendment to the Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags to solve the problems.

Instead of following personal experience, this paper surveys several predominant cases in an attempt to find general principles that can be used as guidelines to amend the Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags.

According to several court cases, the Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags can not only be used to simply allow or refuse the software robots, but also expressing the online copyright authorization policies of webmasters. Any robot following the given policies can prevent possible conflicts, and undoubtedly, any robot ignoring these may be in breach of the law. In terms of adapting to their new roles successfully, the Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags need some supplements and adoption; as a result, the webmasters can express their will more explicitly and avoid unnecessary disputes in relation to copyright authorization scope and trespass to chattels as well.

This paper reveals the new function of the Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags. Based on this new function, this paper points out the disadvantages of the current Robots.txt and Robots Meta tags and proposes new a comprehensive amendment based on this new function.