Human Cues for Robot Navigation

Internal Pages Human Cues for Robot Navigation Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP140103216 The world has many navigational cues for the benefit of humans: sign posts, maps and the wealth of information on the internet. Yet, to date, robotic navigation has made little use of this abundant symbolic information as a resource. This project will develop a robot navigation system that can navigate using information beyond the robot's range sensors by incorporating knowledge gained by reading room labels, following human route directions or interpreting maps found on the web. We will demonstrate the robot's navigation ability by comparing its performance with a human as it learns to find its way around campus by asking for directions, reading signs and maps, and searching the internet for clues. The aim of the project is to create and demonstrate a new framework that integrates information intended for humans into a navigation resource that can be used for autonomous navigation in urban spaces.