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Considering human-robot-interaction as a tool for investigating situated (inter-)action, this paper investigates encounters of small groups of adult and children with an autonomous museum guide robot in the real-world. Focusing on Question-Answer-Sequences, it explores how these groups attempt to answers the robot’s questions and the emerging interactional dynamics between the visitors. Analysis uses video-taped recordings and log-files of the system’s speech recognition. It combines fine-grained micro-analysis of interaction using Conversation Analysis (EM/CA) with the robot’s internal perspective. Analysis reveals that adults tend to assume the role of ‘participation facilitator’ and establish the child(ren) as primary co-participant(s) for the robot. The participants jointly work to produce an answer to the robot’s question, so that a conceptual distinction between the ‘answer-as-interactional process’ and the ‘answer-as-result’ is required. Implications for further designing Question-Answer-Sequences for robotic systems consist in a multimodal approach, in dealing with multiple users and sensitivity to the users’ heterogeneity.