Robot navigation in the social environment: Design challenges

Abstract

As the number of robots is growing in our social environment, it is very important for them to understand and anticipate human behavior. One of the crucial skills for a robot is its navigation in the social environment. Several challenges are encountered when planning for the navigation of a robot in the presence of humans. It is very important for us to articulate these issues and the ways to address them. This will fuel the development of an optimal socially aware navigation framework catering to human comfort, safety, and acceptance during robot navigation. In this article, we classify various challenges and suggest probable solutions that can support roboticists for efficient robot navigation design.