Guidelines for robot-human environments in therapy

In This work we propose guidelines for environmental conditions when using autonomous mobile robots in therapy. We investigate readings from infrared sensors on-board a mobile robot whilst the robot is maneuvering in noisy cluttered environments. Suggestions on how to structure the environment to minimise noise within the robot´s sensor readings are given. Effect of different environmental conditions on the infrared readings are catalogued, including boxes and chairs. Specifically, we investigate under what conditions a method developed by Salter et al., which, used infrared sensors to distinguish between the environment and human contact, is reliable. We also discuss related research and how the guidelines proposed here might extend past proposals for using robots in therapy situations to general robot-human environments.