B. Integrating with Physical Robot Gestures
We demonstrated this approach within a Baxter physical
gesture module that provides directions to travelers who are
blind or low vision. We selected the Baxter since participants
can safely hold the arms with marginal risk of injury. The robot
uses an A* path-planning algorithm to determine the shortest
route from the position of the robot to user’s destination.
The robot guestures the route accompanied by spoken
directions and NavCue supplied sensory landmarks and cues.
Users hold the gripper of robot’s left arm during this
experience. Gesture movement is reduced proportionally in
size to avoid stretching user’s arm. This physical experience
and rich information provides redundancy and memorable
features for more confident navigation.