Adap-RPF: Adaptive Trajectory Sampling for Robot Person Following in Dynamic Crowded Environments

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Situ, Weixi, Ye, Hanjing, Peng, Jianwei, Zhan, Yu, Zhang, Hong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Situ, Weixi
Ye, Hanjing
Peng, Jianwei
Zhan, Yu
Zhang, Hong
author_facet Situ, Weixi
Ye, Hanjing
Peng, Jianwei
Zhan, Yu
Zhang, Hong
contents Robot person following (RPF) is a core capability in human-robot interaction, enabling robots to assist users in daily activities, collaborative work, and other service scenarios. However, achieving practical RPF remains challenging due to frequent occlusions, particularly in dynamic and crowded environments. Existing approaches often rely on fixed-point following or sparse candidate-point selection with oversimplified heuristics, which cannot adequately handle complex occlusions caused by moving obstacles such as pedestrians. To address these limitations, we propose an adaptive trajectory sampling method that generates dense candidate points within socially aware zones and evaluates them using a multi-objective cost function. Based on the optimal point, a person-following trajectory is estimated relative to the predicted motion of the target. We further design a prediction-aware model predictive path integral (MPPI) controller that simultaneously tracks this trajectory and proactively avoids collisions using predicted pedestrian motions. Extensive experiments show that our method outperforms state-of-the-art baselines in smoothness, safety, robustness, and human comfort, with its effectiveness further demonstrated on a mobile robot in real-world scenarios.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_11308
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Adap-RPF: Adaptive Trajectory Sampling for Robot Person Following in Dynamic Crowded Environments
Situ, Weixi
Ye, Hanjing
Peng, Jianwei
Zhan, Yu
Zhang, Hong
Robotics
Robot person following (RPF) is a core capability in human-robot interaction, enabling robots to assist users in daily activities, collaborative work, and other service scenarios. However, achieving practical RPF remains challenging due to frequent occlusions, particularly in dynamic and crowded environments. Existing approaches often rely on fixed-point following or sparse candidate-point selection with oversimplified heuristics, which cannot adequately handle complex occlusions caused by moving obstacles such as pedestrians. To address these limitations, we propose an adaptive trajectory sampling method that generates dense candidate points within socially aware zones and evaluates them using a multi-objective cost function. Based on the optimal point, a person-following trajectory is estimated relative to the predicted motion of the target. We further design a prediction-aware model predictive path integral (MPPI) controller that simultaneously tracks this trajectory and proactively avoids collisions using predicted pedestrian motions. Extensive experiments show that our method outperforms state-of-the-art baselines in smoothness, safety, robustness, and human comfort, with its effectiveness further demonstrated on a mobile robot in real-world scenarios.
title Adap-RPF: Adaptive Trajectory Sampling for Robot Person Following in Dynamic Crowded Environments
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.11308