The Un-Kidnappable Robot: Acoustic Localization of Sneaking People

How easy is it to sneak up on a robot? We examine whether we can detect where people are using only the incidental sounds they produce as they move, even when they try to be quiet. We collect a robotic dataset of high-quality 4-channel audio paired with 360 degree RGB data of people moving in different indoor settings. We train models that predict whether there is a moving person nearby and then their location. We implement our method on a robot in real time, demonstrating the ability for robots to navigate populated indoor spaces in a passive manner. For demonstration videos, see our project page: https://sites.google.com/view/unkidnappable-robot