This paper explores the principles for transforming a quadrupedal robot into a guide robot for individuals with visual impairments. A guide robot has great potential to resolve the limited availability of guide animals that are accessible to only two to three percent of the potential blind or visually impaired (BVI) users. To build a successful guide robot, our paper explores three key topics: (1) formalizing the navigation mechanism of a guide dog and a human, (2) developing a data-driven model of their interaction, and (3) improving user safety. First, we formalize the wayfinding task of the human-guide robot team using Markov Decision Processes based on the literature and interviews. Then we collect real human-robot interaction data from three visually impaired and six sighted people and develop an interaction model called the ``Delayed Harness'' to effectively simulate the navigation behaviors of the team. Additionally, we introduce an action shielding mechanism to enhance user safety by predicting and filtering out dangerous actions. We evaluate the developed interaction model and the safety mechanism in simulation, which greatly reduce the prediction errors and the number of collisions, respectively. We also demonstrate the integrated system on a quadrupedal robot with a rigid harness, by guiding users over $100+$~m trajectories.

本文研究了将四足机器人转化为盲人导航机器人的原则，包括正式化导航机制、开发数据驱动模型和提高用户安全。作者们利用马尔科夫决策过程和实际的人机交互数据，提出了一种被称为“延迟挽具”的交互模型，通过预测并过滤危险动作来增强用户的安全，并对模型和安全机制进行了模拟和实验验证。

将四足动物转变为视障人士导航机器人：形式化路径规划、交互建模和安全机制