GuideNav: 为盲人旅行者开发的基于视觉的机器人导航助手的用户导向开发
GuideNav: User-Informed Development of a Vision-Only Robotic Navigation Assistant For Blind Travelers
- University of Massachusetts Amherst（马萨诸塞大学阿姆赫斯特分校）
- University of Maine（缅因大学）
- University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。
AI总结：
GuideNav是一款基于视觉的导航系统，通过教然后重复的方式帮助盲人旅行者导航，无需依赖昂贵传感器，实现了千米级路径跟随。
AI中文摘要：
尽管在面向移动辅助系统用户的研究中取得了可赞扬的进展，但直接指导机器人导航设计的参考仍然很少。为了弥合这一差距，我们进行了一项全面的人类研究，包括对26名导盲犬饲养员、4名白杖使用者、9名导盲犬训练员和1名O&M训练员的访谈，以及15多小时的导盲犬辅助行走观察。去标识化后，我们开源了该数据集，以促进以人类为中心的开发和辅助系统的设计决策。基于这一形成性研究的洞察，我们开发了GuideNav，一种仅基于视觉的“教然后重复”导航系统。受导盲犬训练和帮助其饲养员的方式启发，GuideNav能够自主重复由视力正常的人通过机器人演示的路径。具体而言，系统构建了所教路径的拓扑表示，将视觉地点识别与时间过滤相结合，并使用相对姿态估计器计算导航动作——所有这些都无需依赖昂贵、沉重、耗能的传感器，如激光雷达。在实地测试中，GuideNav在五个户外环境中均能实现千米级的路径跟随，即使在教学和重复运行之间场景变化明显时仍能保持可靠性。一项包含3名导盲犬饲养员和1名导盲犬训练员的用户研究进一步验证了该系统的可行性，标志着（据我们所知）首次演示了四足移动系统以与导盲犬相似的方式检索路径。
英文摘要：
While commendable progress has been made in user-centric research on mobile assistive systems for blind and low-vision (BLV) individuals, references that directly inform robot navigation design remain rare. To bridge this gap, we conducted a comprehensive human study involving interviews with 26 guide dog handlers, four white cane users, nine guide dog trainers, and one O\&M trainer, along with 15+ hours of observing guide dog-assisted walking. After de-identification, we open-sourced the dataset to promote human-centered development and informed decision-making for assistive systems for BLV people. Building on insights from this formative study, we developed GuideNav, a vision-only, teach-and-repeat navigation system. Inspired by how guide dogs are trained and assist their handlers, GuideNav autonomously repeats a path demonstrated by a sighted person using a robot. Specifically, the system constructs a topological representation of the taught route, integrates visual place recognition with temporal filtering, and employs a relative pose estimator to compute navigation actions - all without relying on costly, heavy, power-hungry sensors such as LiDAR. In field tests, GuideNav consistently achieved kilometer-scale route following across five outdoor environments, maintaining reliability despite noticeable scene variations between teach and repeat runs. A user study with 3 guide dog handlers and 1 guide dog trainer further confirmed the system's feasibility, marking (to our knowledge) the first demonstration of a quadruped mobile system retrieving a path in a manner comparable to guide dogs.
