PROJECT TITLE :

Simulation-Based Behavior Planning to Prevent Congestion of Pedestrians Around a Robot

ABSTRACT:

Social robots operating among pedestrians will attract crowds of folks around them and consequently become bothersome entities inflicting congestion in slim spaces. This in flip can have an effect on the comfort of pedestrians who would like to tolerate. To handle this downside, our plan is to endow the robot with three capabilities: anticipating pedestrian crowding around the robot, understanding pedestrians’ walking comfort, and coming up with to avoid congestions earlier. Combining several elementary pedestrian behavior models, the robot is able to simulate hypothetical situations where it navigates between pedestrians and anticipate the degree to which this might have an effect on the pedestrians’ walking comfort. During planning, the robot determines the best next navigation step based on the results of simulations. We tested the developed system in a real looking mall and confirmed that it successfully reduces the robot's influence on pedestrian walking comfort due to congestions.