From HRI to CRI: Crowd Robot Interaction—Understanding the Effect of Robots on Crowd Motion

Abstract How does the presence of a robot affect pedestrians and crowd dynamics, this influence vary across type? In paper, we took first step towards answering question by performing crowd-robot gate-crossing experiment. The study involved 28 participants two distinct representatives: A smart wheelchair Pepper humanoid robot. Collected data includes: video recordings; participant trajectories; participants’ responses to post-interaction questionnaires. Quantitative analysis on trajectories suggests affects dynamics in terms trajectory regularity interaction complexity. Qualitative results indicate that tend be more conservative follow “social rules” while passing compared These insights can used design social navigation strategy allows natural considering effect dynamics.