Beyond the Plane: A 3D Representation of Human Personal Space for Socially-Aware Robotics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel 3D model of human personal space for robots, incorporating height and horizontal proximity to improve socially-aware robot behavior in human environments.

Contribution

It presents the first 3D personal space model that accounts for vertical and horizontal dimensions, enhancing robot social awareness.

Findings

First 3D discomfort model considering height and proximity

Integrates vertical discomfort with horizontal personal space

Enables robots to better respect human personal boundaries

Abstract

The increasing presence of robots in human environments requires them to exhibit socially appropriate behavior, adhering to social norms. A critical aspect in this context is the concept of personal space, a psychological boundary around an individual that influences their comfort based on proximity. This concept extends to human-robot interaction, where robots must respect personal space to avoid causing discomfort. While much research has focused on modeling personal space in two dimensions, almost none have considered the vertical dimension. In this work, we propose a novel three-dimensional personal space model that integrates both height (introducing a discomfort function along the Z-axis) and horizontal proximity (via a classic XY-plane formulation) to quantify discomfort. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to compute discomfort in 3D space at any robot component's position, considering the person's configuration and height.