POIROT: A Scripted Murder Game Robot DM for Immersive Human–Robot Interaction

POIROT (Plot-Oriented Interactive Robot for Organized Theatrics) is an intelligent robot Game Master designed for murder-mystery and role-playing experiences. It integrates physical embodiment, narrative AI, and multimodal interaction to study how tangible and digital interfaces shape players’ immersion and satisfaction. The robot autonomously delivers game clues through a mechanical card dispenser and a synchronized mobile app, enabling controlled experiments that compare physical versus digital clue delivery. Using sensors, speech interfaces, and contextual reasoning, POIROT dynamically adapts to player behavior, transforming traditional social games into interactive research platforms for embodied storytelling and social robotics. This project bridges entertainment robotics and human–robot interaction research, revealing how design choices in embodiment and modality affect user experience, trust, and emotional engagement.