Interpreting uncertain information related to relative references for improved navigational command understanding of service robots

Abstract

Service robots are being developed as a solution for the implications associated with the aging population. They are intended to be operated by non-expert users and hence human friendly interaction abilities are preferred. Humans prefer to use voice instructions that include uncertain information, lexical symbols and notions instead of instructions with precise quantitative values. Hence, service robots must be capable of interpreting such instructions in human like manner. This paper proposes a method in order to navigate a service robot inside a domestic environment in human friendly manner by using voice instructions that include phrases with uncertain information associated with relative references such as “large table”, “table left of the door” and “table close to the door”. A module called Relative Uncertainty Interpretation (RUI) module has been introduced in order to evaluate the relative references related uncertainties. The RUI module has been implemented by considering the natural tendencies of humans. Experiments have been carried out in an artificially created domestic environment and the results of the proposed system have been compared with the results of a user study in order to evaluate the performance of the proposed system.