Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) people find challenges in navigating unfamiliar environments, even using assistive tools such as white canes or smart devices. Increasingly affordable quadruped robots offer us opportunities to design autonomous guides that
could improve how BVI people find ways around unfamiliar environments and maneuver therein. In this work, we designed RDog, a quadruped robot guiding system that supports BVI individuals’ navigation and obstacle avoidance in indoor and outdoor environments. RDog combines an advanced mapping and navigation system to guide users with force feedback and preemptive voice feedback. Using this robot as an evaluation apparatus, we conducted experiments to investigate the difference in BVI people’s ambulatory behaviors using a white cane, a smart cane, and RDog. Results illustrated the benefits of RDog-based ambulation, including faster and smoother navigation with fewer collisions and limitations, and reduced cognitive load. We discuss the implications of our work for multi-terrain assistive guidance systems.
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Abstract
Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) people find challenges in navigating unfamiliar environments, even using assistive tools such as white canes or smart devices. Increasingly affordable quadruped robots offer us opportunities to design autonomous guides that could improve how BVI people find ways around unfamiliar environments and maneuver therein. In this work, we designed RDog, a quadruped robot guiding system that supports BVI individuals’ navigation and obstacle avoidance in indoor and outdoor environments. RDog combines an advanced mapping and navigation system to guide users with force feedback and preemptive voice feedback. Using this robot as an evaluation apparatus, we conducted experiments to investigate the difference in BVI people’s ambulatory behaviors using a white cane, a smart cane, and RDog. Results illustrated the benefits of RDog-based ambulation, including faster and smoother navigation with fewer collisions and limitations, and reduced cognitive load. We discuss the implications of our work for multi-terrain assistive guidance systems.
屋内外の案内と障害物回避を支援するRDogを提案
・LiDARを利用した広域の案内 ・障害物の回避機能 ・進行方向の段差や地形変化を事前に音声でフィードバックする ・joystickによってスピードを調整することができる
・ユーザ実験では提案手法・白杖のみ・smart cane(既存手法)の3条件で3経路を歩行
・ユーザはただ案内されるだけではなく、経路の意思決定に積極的に関わることを好んだ。 ・盲導犬が交差点で提出して指示を待つような動作を取り入れてほしいとコメント