You Are In My Way: Non-verbal Social Cues for Legible Robot Navigation Behaviors

People and robots may need to cross each other in narrow spaces when they are sharing environments. It is expected that autonomous robots will behave in these contexts safely but also show social behaviors. Thereby, developing an acceptable behavior for autonomous robots in the area mentioned above is a foreseeable problem for the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) field. Our current work focuses on integrating legible non-verbal behaviors into the robot's social navigation to make nearby humans aware of its intended trajectory. Results from a within-subjects study involving 33 participants show that deictic gestures as navigational cues for humanoid robots result in fewer navigation conflicts than the use of a simulated gaze. Additionally, an increase in the perceived anthropomorphism is found when the robot uses the deictic gesture as a cue. These findings show the importance of social behaviors for people avoidance and suggest a paradigm of such behaviors in future humanoid robotic applications.