Situational Awareness and Acceptability of Robots in Shared Environments

The field of robotics has grown significantly in recent decades, evolving from rigid automation in factories and assembly lines to more sophisticated systems such as collaborative manipulators, logistics robots, and drones. As robots integrate into public spaces such as retail environments, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and domestic settings, their presence will become as commonplace as electronic devices. With this migration to areas non-traditionally occupied by robots, their appearances, functions, and complexities will diversify. This transition presents considerable challenges, particularly concerning situational awareness and acceptability. Robots must not only perceive and respond to their environments but also behave in reliable, safe, and ethically sound ways to gain human trust and acceptance. This thesis is a collection of works that address these challenges, aiming to bring the deployment of robots into public and populated environments one step closer to reality. 

This work explores strategies to improve social navigation by respecting personal space, recognising social cues and gestures, identifying groups and honouring spaces reserved for interaction, or negotiating personal space invasion to increase comfort.

Additionally, it studies the use of robots in care-giving, focusing on adaptations necessary for robots to become suitable for assisting the elderly and people with dementia. It also analyses the ethical implications and considerations that accompany the deployment of such robots in care-giving environments.

Furthermore, it presents strategies for adapting multi-agent path finding and planning solutions to ensure their suitability for practical applications, accounting for the imperfections and unpredictability of real-world environments.

In conclusion, this thesis addresses the complex challenges of deploying robots in diverse environments. By focusing on the critical need for situational awareness, it contributes to the thoughtful integration of robots into everyday life, fostering broader acceptance and practical deployment.