Using contact-based inducement for efficient navigation in a congested environment

As robots progressively continue to enter human lives, it becomes important for robots to navigate safely and efficiently in crowded environments. In fact, efficient navigation in crowded areas is an important prerequisite for successful coexistence between humans and robots. In this paper, we explore an unconventional idea wherein a robot tries to achieve a more efficient navigation by influencing an obstructing human to move away by means of contact. First, preliminary human reaction experiments were conducted wherein we established that we can successfully induce a human to move in a desired direction. Following this result, we have proposed a novel motion planning approach which considers inducement by contact. The system is then verified through simulation and real experiments. The results show us that the proposed method can be utilized for safer and more efficient navigation in a crowded, but relatively static environment.