One possibility here, is that the robot may not be able to sense obstacles that are too close and too short, IE kids. Some sensors have a minimum sensing range, meaning if an obstacle is too close the sensor doesn't see it. The kinect is especially notorious for this. If this is the case, the only fix may be to redesign the robot. This might not be too expensive, a ring of ultrasonic range finders around the robot would be very cheap. A couple of bump switches would be even cheaper.

As work on the Minerva tour guide and other robots, children can be quite a problem for robots[0][1]. This is an issue they will need to solve.

[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOhcQCy1Kxs - I highly recommend watching this in full, some of the algorithms used in self driving cars came out of work on Minerva

[1]http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/artificial-intel...

We visit this mall every few weeks and the robots are still somewhat of an attraction there. People will stop and take photos, blocking the path of the robot, which emits a flashing beacon and whirling sound as it's working.

What we have seen is children will run up and hug the robot and dart around the base, which I would assume doesn't expect a human to be at this level. Another incident was a dog owner walking around the robot, but the dog went the other direction, leaving the leash between them. The robot started to run over the leash and almost drag the dog until the owner backtracked and pulled the leash free.

I was surprised that the robot doesn't have a touch/impact sensor as a fall back.

Robot gets promotion to nanny.