See Spot Guide: Accessible Interfaces for an Assistive Quadruped Robot
Rayna Hata, Narit Trikasemsak, Andrea Giudice, Stacy A. Doore
TL;DR
This paper investigates using an industrial quadruped robot (Boston Dynamics Spot Explorer) as a nonvisual navigation aid for BLV individuals through a co-design process grounded in Value-Sensitive Design. It develops two multisensory interfaces—a physical handle and a voice-based app—and evaluates them with sighted participants and a BLV guide-dog handler. Results show the prototypes can support basic guided navigation tasks and convey the robot’s motions, indicating viability while highlighting limitations such as one-way communication, safety constraints, and battery life. The work lays groundwork for iterative improvement (haptics, two-way spatial communication, and robust handling of stairs) and suggests potential roles for robots as alternatives or augmentations to guide dogs in certain contexts.
Abstract
While there is no replacement for the learned expertise, devotion, and social benefits of a guide dog, there are cases in which a robot navigation assistant could be helpful for individuals with blindness or low vision (BLV). This study investigated the potential for an industrial agile robot to perform guided navigation tasks. We developed two interface prototypes that allowed for spatial information between a human-robot pair: a voice-based app and a flexible, responsive handle. The participants (n=21) completed simple navigation tasks and a post-study survey about the prototype functionality and their trust in the robot. All participants successfully completed the navigation tasks and demonstrated the interface prototypes were able to pass spatial information between the human and the robot. Future work will include expanding the voice-based app to allow the robot to communicate obstacles to the handler and adding haptic signals to the handle design.