Cooperative human-robot haptic navigation

This paper proposes a novel use of haptic feedback for human navigation with a mobile robot. Assuming that a path-planner has provided a mobile robot with an obstacle-free trajectory, the vehicle must steer the human from an initial to a desired target position by only interacting with him/her via a custom-designed vibro-tactile bracelet. The subject is free to decide his/her own pace and a warning vibrational signal is generated by the bracelet only when a large deviation with respect to the planned trajectory is detected by the vision sensor on-board the robot. This leads to a cooperative navigation system that is less intrusive, more flexible and easy-to-use than the ones existing in literature. The effectiveness of the proposed system is demonstrated via extensive real-world experiments.