Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T13:29:10.699Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Socially aware path planning for mobile robots

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2014

Sarath Kodagoda*
Affiliation:
Centre for Autonomous Systems (CAS), The University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
Stephan Sehestedt
Affiliation:
Centre for Autonomous Systems (CAS), The University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
Gamini Dissanayake
Affiliation:
Centre for Autonomous Systems (CAS), The University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: Sarath.Kodagoda@uts.edu.au

Summary

Human–robot interaction is an emerging area of research where a robot may need to be working in human-populated environments. Human trajectories are generally not random and can belong to gross patterns. Knowledge about these patterns can be learned through observation. In this paper, we address the problem of a robot's social awareness by learning human motion patterns and integrating them in path planning. The gross motion patterns are learned using a novel Sampled Hidden Markov Model, which allows the integration of partial observations in dynamic model building. This model is used in the modified A* path planning algorithm to achieve socially aware trajectories. Novelty of the proposed method is that it can be used on a mobile robot for simultaneous online learning and path planning. The experiments carried out in an office environment show that the paths can be planned seamlessly, avoiding personal spaces of occupants.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Latombe, J., Robot Motion Planning, Eigth printing (Kluwer, Boston, MA, 1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.LaValle, S. M. and Branicky, M. S., “On the relationship between classical grid search and probabilistic roadmaps,” Int. J. Robot. Res. 23 (7–8), 673692 (2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Likhachev, M., Ferguson, D., Gordon, G., Stentz, A. T. and Thrun, S., “Anytime Dynamic a*: An Anytime, Replanning Algorithm,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS), Monterey, California, USA (Jun. 5–10, 2005) pp. 262271.Google Scholar
4.Berg, J. V. D., Ferguson, D. and Kuffnerl, J., “Anytine Path Planning and Replanning in Dynamic Environments,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Orlando, Florida, USA (May 15–19, 2006) pp. 23662371.Google Scholar
5.Dean, D., Museum Exhibition: Theory and Practice (Routledge, Oxford, UK, 1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Altman, I., Rapoport, A. and Wohlwill, J., Environment and Culture (Springer, New York, NY, 1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Makris, D. and Ellis, T., “Finding Paths in Video Sequence,” Proceedings of the British Machine Vision Conference, Manchester, UK (Sep. 10–13, 2001) pp. 263272.Google Scholar
8.Liao, L., Patterson, D. J., Fox, D. and Kautz, H. A., “Learning and inferring transportation routines,” Artif. Intell. 171 (5–6), 311331 (2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Kruse, E., Gutsche, R. and Wahl, F., “Acquisition of Statistical Motion Patterns in Dynamic Environments and Their Application to Mobile Robot Motion Planning,” Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS '97), vol. 2, Grenoble, France (Sep. 11, 1997) pp. 712717.Google Scholar
10.Govea, D. A. V., Fraichard, T. and Laugier, C., “Incremental Learning of Statistical Motion Patterns with Growing Hidden Markov Models,” Proceedings of the 13th International Symposium of Robotics Research, Hiroshima, Japan (Nov. 26–29, 2007) pp. 7586.Google Scholar
11.Bennewitz, M., Burgard, W. and Thrun, S., “Adapting Navigation Strategies Using Motions Patterns of People,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA '03), vol. 2, Taipei, Taiwan (Sep. 14–19, 2003), pp. 20002005.Google Scholar
12.Kanda, T., Glas, D., Shiomi, M. and Hagita, N., “Abstracting people's trajectories for social robots to proactively approach customers,” IEEE Trans. Robot. 25 (6), 13821396 (Dec. 2009).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13.Sehestedt, S., Kodagoda, S. and Dissanayake, G., “Models of Motion Patterns for Mobile Robotic Systems,” Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Taipei, Taiwan (Oct. 18–22, 2010) pp. 41274132.Google Scholar
14.Lookingbill, A., Lieb, D., Stavens, D., Thrun, S., “Learning Activity-Based Ground Models from a Moving Helicopter Platform,” In: Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2005), Barcelona, Spain (Apr. 18–22, 2005) pp. 39483953.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.Rabiner, L., “A tutorial on hidden markov models and selected applications in speech recognition,” Proc. IEEE 77 (2), 257286 (Feb. 1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Kullback, S. and Leibler, R., “On information and sufficiency,” Ann. Math. Stat. 22 (1), 7986 (1951).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17.Bruce, A. and Gordon, G., “Better Motion Prediction for People-Tracking,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Barcelona, Spain (Apr. 18–22, 2005) pp. 14181423.Google Scholar
18.Hall, E. T., The Hidden Dimension – Man's Use of Space in Public and Private (Bodley Head, London, 1969).Google Scholar
19.Danielsson, C. B., “Differences in perception of noise and privacy in different office types,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 123 (5), 2970 (2008).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20.Allen, T., Hill, A., Underwood, J. and Scheding, S., “Dynamic Path Planning with Multi-Agent Data Fusion – The Parallel Hierarchical Replanner,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA '09), Karlsruhe, Germany (May 6–10, 2013) pp. 32453250.Google Scholar
21.Bohlin, R. and Kavraki, L., “Path Planning Using Lazy Prm,” Proceedings of the ICRA '00. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, vol. 1, San Francisco, CA, USA (Apr. 24–28, 2000) pp. 521528.Google Scholar
22.Zainudin, Z., Kodagoda, S. and Dissanayake, G., “Torso Detection and Tracking Using a 2D Laser Range Finder,” The Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation (ACRA 2010), Brisbane, Australia (Dec. 1–3, 2010).Google Scholar
23.Gerkey, P., Vaughan, R. T. and Howard, A., “The player project,” available at: http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/, August 2010 (online).Google Scholar
24.Brugali, D., Brooks, A., Cowley, A., Côté, C., Domínguez-Brito, A., Létourneau, D., Michaud, F. and Schlegel, C., “Trends in Component-Based Robotics,” In: Software Engineering for Experimental Robotics, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics Series, vol. 30 (Brugali, D., ed.) (Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2007) pp. 231251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25.Sehestedt, S., Kodagoda, S., Alempijevic, A. and Dissanayake, G., “Efficient Learning of Motion Patterns for Robots,” The Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation (ACRA 2009), Sydney, Australia (Dec. 2–4, 2009).Google Scholar
26.Schulz, D., Burgard, W., Fox, D. and Cremers, A., “People tracking with mobile robots using sample-based joint probabilistic data association filters,” Int. J. Robot. Res. 22 (2) (2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar