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Shared-space interactions between people and autonomous vehicles
Designing urban robots that operate in spaces shared with people
The project investigates whether people are more likely to trust the technology and feel safe if they are able to understand how the system makes decisions and to directly influence its behaviour.
The project delivers a key component for the success of robotic applications in cities: It develops critical understanding about how autonomous vehicles in urban environments need to interact with the people that they share those spaces with. Australia’s world-leading position in mining robotics offers a unique first-mover advantage for Australia to lead the development of autonomous vehicle technology, a market estimated to increase to $348 billion globally within the next 10 years.
Beyond the domain of driverless cars, autonomous vehicle technology enables new applications, such as transport pods, delivery droids and maintenance robots. The benefits of these kinds of vehicles, which can operate in shared spaces, such as pedestrian zones, include mobility for people with disabilities, delivery of goods in areas that are not accessible by cars and more efficient maintenance of urban infrastructure.
The project contributes to Australia’s Smart Cities Plan, which outlines the impact of autonomous vehicles, and the Transport for NSW Future Transport 2056 Strategy, which prioritises “places for people”.
Project objectives
Autonomous vehicles that are able to operate in shared spaces, such as campuses and pedestrian zones, promise to improve urban life. However, their uptake depends heavily on public acceptance as they operate in close proximity to people.
The project investigates whether people are more likely to trust the technology and feel safe if they are able to understand how the system makes decisions and to directly influence its behaviour. It has three overarching aims:
- To identify which decision-making processes AVs in shared spaces should communicate to pedestrians and in what ways.
- To create interaction techniques for pedestrians to directly influence the behaviour of AVs in shared spaces.
- To develop strategies for safely testing the interaction between multiple pedestrians and AVs in simulated virtual environments.
Project team
- Callum Parker - Lecturer in Interaction Design
- Stewart Worrall - Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Field Robotics
- Judy Kay - Professor of Computer Science
- Eduardo Nebot - Emeritus Professor, Patrick Chair in Automation and Logistics, Australian Centre for Field Robotics
- Simon Marvin - Professor
- Marius Hoggenmueller – Lecturer in Interaction Design
- Martin Tomitsch - Professor, Head of Transdisciplinary School, UTS
- Tram Tran – PhD Candidate
- Yiyuan Wang – PhD Candidate
The project is funded through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project (DP) scheme under the number DP220102019.