Gwangju History and Folklore Museum Develops 'Docent Robot' to Assist with Guide Services

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] The Gwangju History and Folklore Museum announced on the 19th that it will produce a docent robot to provide guidance services in the permanent exhibition hall this year.

Until now, visitors to the museum received exhibition guidance through cultural tourism interpreters.

With the introduction of the docent robot, visitors will receive personalized exhibition guidance services.

Additionally, the robot will identify visitors' preferences and nationalities to recommend the optimal viewing route tailored to the audience or provide foreign language services. Considering the COVID-19 situation, it will also perform fever checks and disinfection functions.

This project was launched in earnest after the museum applied for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s “2021 Smart Public Museum Infrastructure Project,” was finally selected as the grand prize winner in February, and secured a total project budget of 200 million KRW, including 100 million KRW in national funding.

The museum plans to sign a business agreement with the Gwangju Information and Culture Industry Promotion Agency within this month.

According to the agreement, the museum will provide Gwangju history and Namdo folk culture content, while the Promotion Agency will handle content processing and robot technology development. The robot will undergo trial operation until December and is scheduled to be fully operational starting January next year.

In particular, the docent robot plans to apply advanced technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution such as facial recognition and autonomous driving to a commercial robot, along with wireless earphones and a battery replacement system.

The museum expects that operating the docent robot for exhibition guidance will provide visitors with a unique cultural experience service and support non-face-to-face cultural enjoyment services.

Director Gu Jong-cheon of the museum said, “The docent robot will be developed with a focus on increasing the friendliness of children and student visitors toward the museum,” and added, “We will strive to operate the robot so that citizens can enjoy the museum’s exhibition content, which was completely revamped through renovations last year, in various ways.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.