Generating linguistic spatial descriptions from sonar readings using the histogram of forces

We show how linguistic expressions can be generated to describe the spatial relations between a mobile robot and its environment, using readings from a ring of sonar sensors. Our work is motivated by the study of human-robot communication for non-expert users. The eventual goal is to use these linguistic expressions for navigation of the mobile robot in an unknown environment, where the expressions represent the qualitative state of the robot with respect to its environment, in terms that are easily understood by human users. In the paper, we describe the histogram of forces and its application to sonar sensors on a mobile robot. Several environment examples are also included with the generated linguistic descriptions.