Delegation in Social Interaction for Robots Supporting Blind Users

When navigating complex environments, blind and visually impaired individuals often rely on a combination of personal strategies and assistive technologies. However, existing systems rarely support flexible collaboration between humans and robots or account for how such collaboration evolves over time. This project explores how assistive mobile robots can support blind users by enabling meaningful delegation of perception, decision-making, and social interaction, with a particular focus on how delegation shifts across repeated interactions.

My research investigates this collaborative approach through the design of a suitcase-shaped assistive robot that accompanies users in real-world public spaces. By integrating autonomous navigation, multimodal sensing, and conversational interaction, the robot provides situational awareness, obstacle explanations, and adaptive support tailored to user needs.

Through longitudinal deployments in a museum environment, we examine how blind users’ delegation strategies change over time. We analyze when users choose to rely on the robot, how they adjust their expectations, and how robot explanations, environmental context, and interaction styles influence trust, confidence, and perceived situational awareness. Rather than treating autonomy as a fixed property of the system, this work frames delegation as a dynamic and evolving process shaped by experience, context, and human preferences.

By revealing how delegation develops across extended use, this project contributes new insights into the design of assistive robotic systems that support long-term human–robot collaboration. Ultimately, the goal is to develop robots that not only support navigation, but also empower blind and visually impaired users to engage more confidently and independently with their surroundings.

This work is being conducted in collaboration with researchers at the Miraikan Accessibility Lab, under the supervision of Dr. Chieko Asakawa.