Go That Way: Exploring Supplementary Physical Movements by a Stationary Robot When Providing Navigation Instructions

We describe an exploration of how kiosk-type stationary robots might provide navigation instructions for blind people. Inspired by a technique used by Orientation & Mobility experts in which a route is traced out on a person's palm, we developed five methods that supplement verbal instructions with physical movements. We explored the usability, strengths, and limitations of each of our methods in two exploratory studies with blind participants. One method, in which the robot used its entire arm to create path gestures while participants held its gripper, was preferred by 5 out of 8 blind participants and performed comparably on a recall task as a verbal-only instruction method. A closer approximation of the original palm method failed. We analyzed interview data to understand the reasons behind the failures and successes. We discuss the lessons learned from our studies about instruction methods, how robots in public settings can be useful for blind people, and the challenges of deploying such systems in public.