Social Navigation Using Soar Cognitive architecture as high-level controller for mobile robots

Master Thesis (2025)
Author(s)

B. Essabri (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)

Contributor(s)

F. Zamani Khalili – Mentor (TU Delft - Robot Dynamics)

Carlos Hernandez – Mentor (TU Delft - Robot Dynamics)

Joris Sijs – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Learning & Autonomous Control)

Faculty
Mechanical Engineering
More Info
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Publication Year
2025
Language
English
Graduation Date
18-02-2025
Awarding Institution
Delft University of Technology
Programme
['Mechanical Engineering | Vehicle Engineering | Cognitive Robotics']
Faculty
Mechanical Engineering
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Abstract

This paper presents a Soar-based system for social navigation in mobile robots, where the Soar cognitive architecture serves as a high-level controller to dynamically adapt the navigation behavior of a lower-level motion controller based on environmental and social cues. The navigation behavior configured in this work is the maximum allowed speed, enabling safe and
socially appropriate navigation around humans. Soar’s symbolic reasoning and procedural logic provide a scalable and flexible framework for high-level control in complex environments. The research focuses on human-following within social navigation, with experimental results demonstrating the system’s effectiveness and adherence to social norms. However, limitations in navigation performance and simulation realism highlight opportunities for future work to enhance Soar’s application in complex, real-world scenarios.

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