The main goal of the CROWDBOT project is the demonstration of safe navigation of robots among dense human crowds. Three keywords stand out in understanding the challenges involved in reaching this goal: safety, navigation and human crowds. A robot can be operated safely by moving at a slow gentle pace. Due to its cautious maneuvering it tends to freeze whenever it senses contact or collision. To lessen impact, its body frame can be compliant and made of soft materials to prevent bodily harm during contact. However, in CROWDBOT we place no such requirements for motion or body design on robots. Any robotic platform, big and small, heavy and light, must be able to navigate safely at the same pace as the human crowd it is roaming amongst. As for navigation, in its simplest form, it is movement from start to finish point. A majority of robots in the marketplace navigate using several aids such as pre-loaded maps, GPS or similar localization solutions, wireless communication for real-time interaction and remote monitoring. In CROWDBOT we assume all our robots are self-sufficient and autonomous: no pre-loaded map nor GPS-type navigation aid and no external communication options. The robot must rely on its own sensors, processors and intelligent algorithms for mapping, localization and motion/path planning. It is true that additional navigation aids will provide redundancy and robustness to the system but the goal of CROWDBOT is to demonstrate self-relying navigation without such aids.
As a unique CROWDBOT feature beyond the state-of-the-art, our bots will be able to sense, track and perceive the behavior of human crowds in its vicinity. Color-vision and depth sensors plus LIDAR and other proximity sensor data are fused and interpreted in real time to better understand individual and group behavior, speed, acceleration, direction and related motion profiles of human crowds. The robots are then able to distinguish idle/standing/sitting humans from those in motion and of course, also identify non-human physical objects and other obstacles.
The technical work and achievements of CROWDBOT are important to society for two different reasons: First, the project propels the advancement of mobile robotics, computer vision and the application and exploitation of related sensor technologies. CROWDBOT technologies are not limited to the field of robotics; it applies to other autonomous systems such as driverless cars, unmanned aircraft and even Internet-of-Things devices. Second, research activities and prototype demonstrations in the robotics community have expanded at a very fast pace in the past few years, largely driven by public fascination of robots, advances in artificial intelligence technology and availability of funding from various commercial investors. We now see robots roaming in public places, office environments, industrial warehouses and even restaurants where they perform as food preparers or servers. What is lacking so far are guidelines, operational procedures and best practices for safe navigation of such robots in such environments. Along with navigation, safety is one of the two main objectives of CROWDBOT. The team will develop the necessary framework that will eventually lead to standardization and certification of any robotic platform for safe operation among human crowds in private or public environment.
Under the umbrella objective of safe navigation among crowds, there are five specific technical objectives aimed for in CROWDBOT: 1) Sensing the crowd around the robot 2) Predicting crowd motion in the short-term 3) Navigating safely and efficiently in the crowd 4) Create new set of tools to evaluate risks of navigation within crowds and 5) Deliver safety, ethical and legal recommendations for robot navigation in public environments.
