Discrete time motion model for guiding people in urban areas using multiple robots

We present a new model for people guidance in urban settings using several mobile robots, that overcomes the limitations of existing approaches, which are either tailored to tightly bounded environments, or based on unrealistic human behaviors. Although the robots motion is controlled by means of a standard particle filter formulation, the novelty of our approach resides in how the environment and human and robot motions are modeled. In particular we define a “Discrete-Time- Motion” model, which from one side represents the environment by means of a potential field, that makes it appropriate to deal with open areas, and on the other hand the motion models for people and robots respond to realistic situations, and for instance human behaviors such as “leaving the group” are considered.