Preference-Based People-Aware Navigation for Telepresence Robots

• DOI: 10.1007/s12369-024-01131-3
• Publication Date: 2024-04-24T07:01:36Z
• Authors: Alberto Bacchin; Gloria Beraldo; Jun Miura; Emanuele Menegatti
• Keywords: Telerobotics

Abstract This work proposes an innovative people-aware navigation for telepresence robots in a populated environment based on the estimated inclination of people to interact and context information. The main novelty proposed shared intelligence is ability fuse remote operator’s commands with probability person-robot interaction—from both operator driving robot around it—and translate it into semi-autonomous approaching avoiding behaviors that are not coded priori but rather dynamically emerge according current context-awareness. Experiments involved 45 healthy participants who evaluated approach real robot. Three conditions have been tested: (a) new ; (b) system integrated standard ROS social layers and; (c) direct teleoperation (i.e., no robot’s intelligence). Results from our shown were line expectations terms comfort, naturalness, sociability coherent findings previous studies. Furthermore, has facilitated interaction between surrounding people, making more proactive without affecting performance.