ROBOPOL: Social Robotics Meets Vehicular Communications for Cooperative Automated Driving
Robotics
2026-05-05 v2 Systems and Control
Systems and Control
Abstract
On the way toward full autonomy, sharing roads between automated and autonomous vehicles in so-called mixed traffic is unavoidable. Moreover, even if all vehicles on the road were autonomous, pedestrians would still cross streets. We propose social robots as moderators between autonomous vehicles and vulnerable road users. This paper presents a first proof-of-concept integration of a social robot advising pedestrians in crossing scenarios involving a cooperative automated vehicle. We also discuss key enablers required for designing "robot policeman" in a generic use case of cooperative intersection management. Our work provides a vision of the role of social robotics in future Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2512.24129,
title = {ROBOPOL: Social Robotics Meets Vehicular Communications for Cooperative Automated Driving},
author = {John Pravin Arockiasamy and Andy Comeca and Victoria Yang and Manuel Bied and Maximilian Schrapel and Alexey Rolich and Barbara Bruno and Maike Schwammberger and Dieter Fiems and Alexey Vinel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.24129},
year = {2026}
}