Mobile Robot Yielding Cues for Human-Robot Spatial Interaction

TL;DR

This paper investigates effective communication cues for mobile robots yielding to pedestrians, finding that a retreating gesture is most socially acceptable, thereby aiding the development of socially aware robots in public spaces.

Contribution

It introduces and evaluates specific yielding cues for robots, providing insights into socially acceptable robot behaviors for pedestrian interaction.

Findings

Robot Retreating cue was most accepted

Participants preferred clear visual cues for robot yielding

Study informs design of socially aware mobile robots

Abstract

Mobile robots are increasingly being deployed in public spaces such as shopping malls, airports, and urban sidewalks. Most of these robots are designed with human-aware motion planning capabilities but are not designed to communicate with pedestrians. Pedestrians encounter these robots without prior understanding of the robots' behaviour, which can cause discomfort, confusion, and delayed social acceptance. In this research, we explore the common human-robot interaction at a doorway or bottleneck in a structured environment. We designed and evaluated communication cues used by a robot when yielding to a pedestrian in this scenario. We conducted an online user study with 102 participants using videos of a set of robot-to-human yielding cues. Results show that a Robot Retreating cue was the most socially acceptable cue. The results of this work help guide the development of mobile robots for public spaces.