CROWDBOT: A crowd-aware shared-control wheelchair navigation system
CROWDBOT will enable mobile robots to navigate autonomously and assist humans in crowded areas, rather than simply stopping when the going gets tough.
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CROWDBOT (aka “Safe Robot Navigation in Dense Crowds”) is an EUR 4M Horizon 2020 consortium of five universities and two industrial partners:
- INRIA, France (co-ordinator);
- EPFL, Switzerland;
- ETHZ, Switzerland;
- RWTH, Germany;
- UCL, UK;
- SBR Europe, France; and
- LOC GmbH, Germany.
CROWDBOT will enable mobile robots to navigate autonomously and assist humans in crowded areas, rather than simply stopping when the going gets tough.
The project will fill the gap in knowledge about close interactions between robots and humans during navigation tasks. In particular, CROWDBOT considers three realistic scenarios:
- a semi-autonomous wheelchair that will adapt its trajectory to unexpected movements of people in its vicinity;
- the commercially available Pepper robot that will navigate in dense crowds, whilst actively approaching people to assist them;
- the cuyBot (under-development) that will adapt to compact crowds, as well as to being touched and pushed by people.
Dr Tom Carlson (PI, Aspire Create) and Dr Cathy Holloway will lead a core workpackage on the co-design and evaluation of the CROWDBOT system, as well as developing one of the demonstrators: a crowd-aware shared-control wheelchair. Bingqing (Pat) Zhangis a PhD student working on this project.
Shared-Control Navigation
We’ve all heard of autonomous systems (self-driving cars, etc.), but in some cases, fully autonomous systems aren’t really what the users want. For example, most wheelchair users do not want to be treated simply like precious pieces of cargo and ferried around automatically from point A to point B. Instead, they want to be empowered to get around by themselves so they can continue with their activities of daily living as independently as possible. However, there are some instances when environmental barriers such as narrow passageways, rough terrain and indeed crowds of oblivious pedestrians rather hamper their efforts. In cases such as these, we propose a “shared control navigation”, whereby the wheelchair itself is able to actively assist the user in safely and efficiently manoeuvring through these difficult situations, without taking away their overall control authority. It is important to note that every individual is unique, so any such shared control system should be able to adapt to the needs and capabilities of that particular user.
Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-xYeRGTvwB1repF1otKoIeuv8k0drfx6/view?usp=sharing
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