Speed Maps: An Application to Guide Robots in Human Environments

TL;DR

This paper introduces speed maps, a novel approach for guiding mobile robots in human environments by dynamically adjusting their speed to enhance safety and efficiency.

Contribution

The paper proposes the concept of static and dynamic speed maps for mobile robots, integrating them with semantic and metric maps for improved navigation and safety in human environments.

Findings

Speed maps reduce collision risk.

Speed maps decrease navigation time.

System supports automatic initialization with QR codes.

Abstract

We present the concept of speed maps: speed limits for mobile robots in human environments. Static speed maps allow for faster navigation on corridors while limiting the speed around corners and in rooms. Dynamic speed maps put limits on speed around humans. We demonstrate the concept for a mobile robot that guides people to annotated landmarks on the map. The robot keeps a metric map for navigation and a semantic map to hold planar surfaces for tasking. The system supports automatic initialization upon the detection of a specially designed QR code. We show that speed maps not only can reduce the impact of a potential collision but can also reduce navigation time.