Enhancing human robot communication by generating spatial information using uncertain terms

Abstract

Human interactions are not always specific and literal. In day-to-day scenarios, humans interact with each other in the manner that a lot of those involve uncertainties. When the robot has to interact with the user regarding an instance in a navigation scenario, the human user would effectively understand and react quickly if the robot interacts using the same uncertain concepts. However, the interactions, perception of situations, awareness of environmental parameters, and interpretations of those parameters should be accurate and human-like at the same time. Therefore, this paper proposes an intelligent system that has the capability to interpret spatial parameters and navigation parameters associated with navigation in a dynamic environment in a human-like manner. The proposed system considers the navigation of an intelligent wheelchair in a domestic environment. Parameters such as the velocity of the obstacles, distances to particular obstacles, and the size of the obstacles are perceived and interpreted according to the uncertainties attached to them. Understanding of the situation is enhanced by considering the fuzzy interpretations of numerical values of each parameter and the mutual effect of other parameters on these fuzzy interpretations of a particular parameter.