Prof. Anca Dragan
gave a talk as part of the WIRED25 summit, explaining some
of the challenges robots face when interacting with people. First, robots that
share space with people, from autonomous cars to quadrotors to indoor mobile
robots, need to anticipate what people plan on doing and make sure they can
stay out of the way. This is already hard, because robots are not mind readers,
and yet they need access to a rough simulator of us, humans, that they can use
to help them decide how to act. The bar gets raised when it’s crowded, because
then robots have to also understand how they can influence the actions that
people take, like getting another driver to slow down and make space for a
merging autonomous car. And what if the person decides to accelerate instead?
Find out about the ways in which robots can negotiate these situations in the
video below.