Our main research question is “How to design and implement robust robot behavior for navigation and path finding for a Pepper platform at the recovery section of the heart surgery department in Catharina Ziekenhuis, Eindhoven?“
The Catharina Ziekenhuis in Eindhoven wants to provide information to patients in the recovery section of the heart surgery department without putting extra pressure on the nurses. A robot must be developed that can take over this task. The robot that is used for this project is the Pepper robot. This robot is a humanoid robot which does not come over as scary to patients in the hospital and it will be effective with every age group. However, the robot does not navigate out-of-the-box. As the space in which the robot will navigate is a real hospital environment, meaning it is very dynamic and the situation changes constantly, navigation is an important feature for this robot. Within the hospital, navigation would be done along both static and dynamic objects. Thus, it is important to know how to design and implement a robust navigation and path finding system with these points in mind. Therefore, it is vital to research how to effectively use existing packages and Pepper’s sensors to get the best results for navigation.
