ROBOPOL: Social Robotics Meets Vehicular Communications for Cooperative Automated Driving
This work addresses the challenge of mixed traffic interactions for autonomous vehicle developers and urban planners, but is a preliminary proof-of-concept.
The paper proposes using social robots as moderators between autonomous vehicles and vulnerable road users, presenting a first proof-of-concept integration in crossing scenarios with cooperative automated vehicles.
On the way toward full autonomy, sharing roads between automated and autonomous vehicles in so-called mixed traffic is unavoidable. Moreover, even if all vehicles on the road were autonomous, pedestrians would still cross streets. We propose social robots as moderators between autonomous vehicles and vulnerable road users. This paper presents a first proof-of-concept integration of a social robot advising pedestrians in crossing scenarios involving a cooperative automated vehicle. We also discuss key enablers required for designing "robot policeman" in a generic use case of cooperative intersection management. Our work provides a vision of the role of social robotics in future Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems.