Although we may be unaware of it (or choose to rebel against it) we tend to observe codes of pedestrian conduct – keeping to the right, passing on the left, respecting personal space and not barging straight through people. Now, engineers at MIT have designed an autonomous robot that can do the same.
In tests, the knee-high robot, which runs on wheels, managed to avoid colliding with pedestrians while keeping up with their pace. In order to allow the robot to plan its movement, the team fitted sensors, including a webcam, a depth sensor and a lidar sensor. The robot was trained using reinforcement learning, involving computer simulations, to identify the optimum path through a crowd.
Yu Fan “Steven” Chen, lead author of the study, commented, ‘Socially aware navigation is a central capability for mobile robots operating in environments that require frequent interactions with pedestrians […] For instance, small robots could operate on sidewalks for package and food delivery. Similarly, personal mobility devices could transport people in large, crowded spaces, such as shopping malls, airports, and hospitals.’
Details of the robot will be outlined in a paper presented at the IEEE Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in September.
To find out more on materials science, packaging and engineering news, visit our website IOM3 at or follow us on Twitter @MaterialsWorld for regular news updates.
