Where can I park my robot? Modeling out-of-the-way parking spots in the home using room geometry

For social robots operating in home environments, identifying appropriate parking locations which are “out of the way” is a challenging and multi-faceted problem. This paper proposes a solution to one core aspect of that problem, specifically a model for estimating locations where the robot may block walking paths through narrow spaces. For generality, this model assumes no a priori knowledge about user behaviors or semantic features in the space, and is derived purely from spatial geometry based on a standard 2D occupancy map. An experimental validation based on self-reported parking spot preferences from long-term robot users demonstrates that the proposed model captures 74% of user preferences, outperforming a naive baseline condition in selecting user-preferred parking spots. The proposed method provides a basis for estimating socially-appropriate parking locations for robots operating in the home or other unstructured social spaces and serves as a foundation for developing more sophisticated parking spot preference models in the future.