Effective Human-Robot Collaboration in near symmetry collision scenarios

Abstract

Recent works in the domain of Human-Robot Motion (HRM) attempted to plan collision avoidance behavior that accounts for cooperation between agents. Cooperative collision avoidance between humans and robots should be conducted under several factors such as speed, heading and also human attention and intention. Based on some of these factors, people decide their crossing order during collision avoidance. However, whenever situations arise in which the choice crossing order is not consistent for people, the robot is forced to account for the possibility that both agents will assume the same role i.e. a decision detrimental to collision avoidance. In our work we evaluate the boundary that separates the decision to avoid collision as first or last crosser. Approximating the uncertainty around this boundary allows our collision avoidance strategy to address this problem based on the insight that the robot should plan its collision avoidance motion in such a way that, even if agents, at first, incorrectly choose the same crossing order, they would be able to unambiguously perceive their crossing order on their following collision avoidance action.