盲導犬ロボットのシステム構成とナビゲーション：盲導犬レベルの誘導作業に向けて
System Configuration and Navigation of a Guide Dog Robot: Toward Animal Guide Dog-Level Guiding Work
盲導犬ハンドラーと盲導犬のチームとしてのナビゲーションを質的調査に基づいて分析し、ハンドラーの位置と方向指示を考慮した意味論的局所経路計画を提案する屋内ナビゲーションシステムを構築した。
著者: Hochul Hwang, Tim Xia, Ibrahima Keita, Ken Suzuki, Joydeep Biswas, Sunghoon I. Lee, Donghyun Kim
分類: cs.RO, cs.AI
原文アブストラクト
A robot guide dog has compelling advantages over animal guide dogs for its cost-effectiveness, potential for mass production, and low maintenance burden. However, despite the long history of guide dog robot research, previous studies were conducted with little or no consideration of how the guide dog handler and the guide dog work as a team for navigation. To develop a robotic guiding system that is genuinely beneficial to blind or visually impaired individuals, we performed qualitative research, including interviews with guide dog handlers and trainers and first-hand blindfold walking experiences with various guide dogs. Grounded on the facts learned from vivid experience and interviews, we build a collaborative indoor navigation scheme for a guide dog robot that includes preferred features such as speed and directional control. For collaborative navigation, we propose a semantic-aware local path planner that enables safe and efficient guiding work by utilizing semantic information about the environment and considering the handler's position and directional cues to determine the collision-free path. We evaluate our integrated robotic system by testing guide blindfold walking in indoor settings and demonstrate guide dog-like navigation behavior by avoiding obstacles at typical gait speed ($0.7 \mathrm{m/s}$).
