A STUDY ON USER-ADAPTIVE NAVIGATION INCORPORATING PREFERENCE OF ELDERLY PEDESTRIANS USING THEIR ROUTE EVALUATION AND WALKING HISTORY

Our study aims to devise a new method for route planning that caters to the distinct needs of elderly pedestrians. We established a quantitative model to capture the relationship between the characteristics of elderly users and their route preferences. Additionally, we evaluated a user adaptation methodology that incorporates user preference assessment and walking history data. “Acceptable detour time” was used as a measure of user preferences. As the primary plan, we suggested a method based on post-walking evaluations of route factors by the user, which was validated through an empirical walking experiment, highlighting the feasibility of our approach. However, this approach relies on user input for each route factor, raising concerns over user convenience. To address this issue, we extended our objective to devise a methodology that incorporates walking history, eliminating the need for user input. Drawing insights from an additional walking experiment, we formulated an alternative strategy for adjusting the acceptable detour time in our secondary plan. This strategy estimates the user's evaluation of each route factor by comparing the shortest route with the actual route walked. Application of this method to our experimental data demonstrated its utility and viability, but it also revealed an exacerbation of estimation error with updates in some situations, requiring further research to enhance the efficiency of our proposed methodology.