Beyond the Shortest Route: A Survey on Quality-Aware Route Navigation for Pedestrians

Navigation systems often aid users when traveling in unfamiliar locations. Current navigation systems tend to focus on identifying the shortest or fastest routes between two points. However, path cost expressed in terms of length and distance (i.e., the utilitarian qualities of travel) is only one attribute which could be used in route recommendation. Recent years have seen navigation systems moving beyond such utilitarian attributes. These include systems aimed at providing users with scenic, safe or attractive routes among other dimensions. In this paper, we contribute to the existing research domain by providing an overview of the different quality-aware route navigation systems that have been proposed in past research for pedestrians. In particular, we examine the different qualities which have been used as key criteria in route recommendation. As the outcome of the paper, we provide a categorization of these systems based on our proposed SWEEP taxonomy. In addition, we outline the various data sources, algorithms and evaluation approaches that have been used to implement quality-aware route navigation systems. Afterwards, we conclude by discussing potential problems encountered in previous studies and highlight promising directions for future research.