Citation: Sousa, R.M.d.;
Barrios-Aranibar, D.; Diaz-Amado, J.;
Patiño-Escarcina, R.E.; Trindade,
R.M.P. A New Approach for
Including Social Conventions into
Social Robots Navigation by Using
Polygonal Triangulation and Group
Asymmetric Gaussian Functions.
Sensors 2022, 22, 4602. https://
doi.org/10.3390/s22124602
Academic Editors: Luis Payá,
Oscar Reinoso García and
Helder Jesus Araújo
Received: 9 May 2022
Accepted: 13 June 2022
Published: 18 June 2022
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Article
A New Approach for Including Social Conventions into Social
Robots Navigation by Using Polygonal Triangulation and
Group Asymmetric Gaussian Functions
Raphaell Maciel de Sousa
1,
* , Dennis Barrios-Aranibar
2
, Jose Diaz-Amado
2,3
, Raquel E. Patiño-Escarcina
2
and Roque Mendes Prado Trindade
4
1
Instituto Federal da Paraíba (IFPB), Campus Cajazeiras, Cajazeiras 58900-000, PB, Brazil
2
Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Universidad Católica San Pablo, Arequipa 04001, Peru;
dbarrios@ucsp.edu.pe (D.B.-A.); jose_diaz@ifba.edu.br (J.D.-A.); rpatino@ucsp.edu.pe (R.E.P.-E.)
3
Instituto Federal da Bahia (IFBA), Campus Vitória da Conquista, Vitória da Conquista 45078-300, BA, Brazil
4
Department of Technologics and Exacts Sciences, State University of Southwest Bahia (UESB),
Vitória da Conquista 45083-900, BA, Brazil; roquetrindade@uesb.edu.br
* Correspondence: raphaell.sousa@ifpb.edu.br
Abstract:
Many authors have been working on approaches that can be applied to social robots to
allow a more realistic/comfortable relationship between humans and robots in the same space. This
paper proposes a new navigation strategy for social environments by recognizing and considering
the social conventions of people and groups. To achieve that, we proposed the application of
Delaunay triangulation for connecting people as vertices of a triangle network. Then, we defined
a complete asymmetric Gaussian function (for individuals and groups) to decide zones where the
robot must avoid passing. Furthermore, a feature generalization scheme called socialization feature
was proposed to incorporate perception information that can be used to change the variance of
the Gaussian function. Simulation results have been presented to demonstrate that the proposed
approach can modify the path according to the perception of the robot compared to a standard
A* algorithm.
Keywords:
social robots navigation; social conventions; socialization features; delaunay triangulation;
asymmetric Gaussian function
1. Introduction
Robots are special machines with specific objectives and use: for instance, from clean-
ing and vacuuming households with different layouts to building complex pieces in an
industrial environment. In this sense, many researchers have tried to categorize the robots.
Gonzalez-Aguirre et al. [
1
] considered conventional robots and advanced robots working
on different tasks and services. These services could include package delivery [
2
] and
catering applications [3], among others [4,5].
Wirtz et al. [
6
] explain a categorization of service robots in relation to their task type,
where a “social robot” could be considered as a type of service robot with emotional–social
tasks. However, Duffy et al. [
7
] are the first that mentioned a “social robot” as a complex
entity in an environment that is designed to behave appropriately on its own goals and
those of its group of individuals.
According to recent statistics, social robots are more present and commonly seen
in our daily lives [
8
]. When robots share environments with human beings, they often
play a role of a friend collaborating with them in specific daily tasks. Examples of such
collaboration can be a mobile manipulator, which is designed to serve as an assistant
to nurses or in rehabilitation tasks in hospital environments [
9
], or a mobile robot designed
to work as a student receptionist at a university [
10
], among other robots designed to help
in daily human activities.
Sensors 2022, 22, 4602. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22124602 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors
