SEAN-EP¶
The SEAN Experiment Platform (SEAN-EP) allows deployment of the SEAN simulator at scale on the web. Through SEAN-EP, remote users can control the motion of a human avatar via their web browser and interact with a virtual robot controlled through the Robot Operating System (ROS). Experimental data can easily be recorded for later analysis of social robot navigation algorithms. SEAN-EP includes integration with the Qualtrics survey platform, making it possible to allow study participants to interact with SEAN from within the Qualtrics survey.
System¶
Using modern web technologies, the SEAN-EP can be embedded in a web-based survey form to allow quick collection data from online participants.
SEAN-EP consists of SEAN, our Unity and ROS-based simulator. It is described in detail in our SEAN setup instructions. In addition, SEAN-EP allows multiple instances of the simulation environment to be run concurrently via a web-based orchestration tool. Each simulator session is managed by the Process Manager, allowing many concurrent SEAN Sessions. NGINX, the Processes Manager, and a local Datastore are used to serve many SEAN Sessions to users via a standard web browser. Supporting web-scale data collection, SEAN-EP is able to scale horizontally using a session-aware load balancer.
Deploying SEAN-EP¶
Please see the README.md in the social_sim_web code for latest, detailed setup and usage instructions.
Survey Integration¶
Our simulation is integrated with the Qualtrics Survey Platform, which makes it easier for researchers to conduct large-scale social robot navigation experiments on the web.
Human Avatar Control¶
Please see the running the simulator section on how to control the human avatar.