Being guided from one place to another is a pervasive social practice that connects deeply with socially aware robot navigation. We examine how robots come to feature within the organisation of these established and well-worn leading and following practices, practices which are assembled 'in place' by the efforts of individuals and groups that are using robot guides. We deployed mobile robots in a museum context to provide additional information for visitors around multiple sequential exhibits. Our ethnomethodological video-based analysis of interaction centres on how the social organisation of being guided was practically managed by visitors: in initiation of following, doing following, and finding a place to stop. Our study shows how following and being led is more than just a mechanical activity, and describe the implications for socially aware robot navigation in addressing novel technical challenges that a shift in understanding following-leading phenomena presents.

Telepresence robots have the potential to change our experiences in galleries and museums, allowing for a range of hybrid interactions for visitors and museum professionals, improving accessibility, offering activities or information, and providing a range of practical use cases (e.g. the robots augmenting museum exhibits).We present the results of 3 qualitative studies conducted in the UK exploring the acceptability (1 -interviews with museum professionals with no previous exposure to telepresence), acceptance (2 -focus groups for initial exposure to telepresence robots), and adoption (3 -interviews with museum professionals with long-term exposure to

Mobile Robotic Telepresence (MRP) systems afford remote communication with an embodied physicality and autonomous mobility, which is thought to be useful for creating a sense of presence in hybrid activities. In this paper, drawing on phenomenology, we interviewed seven long term users of MRP to understand the lived experience of participating in hybrid spaces through a telepresence robot. The users' accounts show how the capabilities of the robot impact interactions, and how telepresence differs from in-person presence. Whilst not feeling as if they were really there, users felt present when they were being able to participate in local action and be treated as present. They also report standing out and being subject to behaviour amounting to 'othering'. We argue that these experiences point to a need for future work on telepresence to focus on giving remote users the means to exercise autonomy in ways that enable them to participate --- to be 'in on the action' --- rather than in ways that simply simulate being in-person.

Mobile Robotic Telepresence (MRP) systems are remotely controlled, mobile videoconferencing devices that allow the remote user to move independently and have a physical presence in the environment. This paper presents a longitudinal study of MRP use in the home, where the first author used an MRP to connect with family, her partner, and friends over a six-month period. Taking an ethnomethodological approach, we present video recorded fragments to explore the phenomenon of ‘visiting’ where MRP users drop into the home for a period of time. We unpack the more ‘procedural’ elements—arriving and departing—alongside ways of ‘dwelling’ together during a visit, and the qualities of mobility, autonomous presence and spontaneity that emerge.

Via audiovisual communications and a controllable physical embodiment, Mobile Robotic telePresence (MRP) systems aim to support enhanced collaboration between remote and local members of a given setting. But MRP systems also put the remote user in positions where they frequently rely on the help of local partners. Getting or 'recruiting' such help can be done with various verbal and embodied actions ranging in explicitness. In this paper, we look at how such recruitment occurs in video data drawn from an experiment where pairs of participants (one local, one remote) performed a timed searching task. We find a prevalence of implicit recruitment methods and outline obstacles to effective recruitment that emerge due to communicative asymmetries that are built into MRP design. In a future where remote work becomes widespread, assistance through remote work technology like MRPs needs close examination at a fundamental interactional level, taking into account how communicative asymmetries are at play in everyday use of such technologies.