Proposal of path planning for a mobile robot to respect human movements in dynamic environments by using a Human Frequency Map

Abstract

A mobile robot used in home or office has to not only search the shortest path but also perform the path planning to respect human movement. In this study, several sensors are distributed in the environmental side, and humans walking route is observed. Then, we propose a “Human Frequency Map (HFM)” that is grid map based on the observed human position. By using the HFM, the proposed path planning can minimize the possibility for encountering human by considering the human frequency of a certain time zone and the current position of human. In this paper, we evaluate the usefulness of the information obtained from the HFM for the path planning in the case where the robot follows the specified person while avoiding the other persons.