An Architecture for Social-Aware Navigation Based on a Chatbot Interaction

Abstract

The coexistence of service robots in social environments has been intensified in recent years, demanding Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) increasingly fluid and necessary. In this context, the present work aims to develop an architecture, called Erika. Erika provides a chatbot to interact by voice and text commands with a service robot, who implements an autonomous navigation, respecting social restrictions based on proxemic zones. An API is available in Erika for connecting the chatbot with a website application, that in turn establishes communication with the Robot Operating System (ROS) to perform simulated experiments and test the functionality of the chatbot and the social-aware navigation of the robot. Results demonstrate that the service robot can respond to the commands provided through the chatbot and , so that, finally, it can drive autonomous or manual navigation, when necessary.