Formalizing Trajectories in Human-Robot Encounters via Probabilistic STL Inference

Abstract

In this paper, we are interested in formalizing human trajectories in human-robot encounters. We consider a particular case where a human and a robot walk towards each other. A question that arises is whether, when, and how humans will deviate from their trajectory to avoid a collision. These human trajectories can then be used to generate socially acceptable robot trajectories. To model these trajectories, we propose a data-driven algorithm to extract a formal specification expressed in Signal Temporal Logic with probabilistic predicates. We evaluated our method on trajectories collected through an online study where participants had to avoid colliding with a robot in a shared environment. Further, we demonstrate that probabilistic STL is a suitable formalism to depict human behavior, choices and preferences in specific scenarios of social navigation.