Socially Reactive Navigation Models for Mobile Robots in Dynamic Environments

The objective of this work is to expand upon previous works, considering socially acceptable behaviours within robot navigation and interaction, and allow a robot to closely approach static and dynamic individuals or groups. The space models developed are adaptive, that is, capable of changing over time to accommodate the changing circumstances often existent within a social environment. The space model’s parameters’ adaptation occurs with the end goal of enabling a close interaction between humans and robots. This work also further develops a preexisting approach pose estimation algorithm in order to better guarantee the safety and comfort of the humans involved in the interaction. The entire navigation system is then evaluated through both simulations and real life situations. These experiments demonstrate that the developed space model and approach pose estimation algorithms are capable of enabling a robot to closely approach individual humans and groups, while maintaining considerations for their comfort and sensibilities.