As mobile robots become more common in shared public spaces, understanding how their movements affect pedestrian comfort has become a key challenge in human–robot interaction. Although prior research has investigated the effects of robot lateral distance and speed, findings have been inconsistent, with little attention paid to how these factors interact with pedestrians’ mobility states (e.g., walking vs. stopping). To address this gap, we conducted a virtual reality experiment where participants experienced 30 scenarios combining five lateral distances, three robot velocities, and two pedestrian states. Discomfort was measured using standardized questionnaires and real-time button presses. Results showed that discomfort increased at closer distances and higher speeds, with these effects amplified when pedestrians were walking. Discomfort was minimized when robots-maintained distances over 120 cm and moved slower than typical walking speed. This study offers new insights into how robot proxemics and pedestrian mobility jointly shape discomfort, informing proximity-aware navigation design.

This study addresses the challenge of ensuring pedestrian safety in shared spaces during human-robot interactions. As mobile robots become increasingly integrated into public environments, there is a need to better understand how pedestrians perceive robots in proximity. This research explores the effects of robot lateral distance, robot velocity, and pedestrian state on pedestrian perception, with a particular focus on proximity zones during human-robot interactions. Conducted in a virtual reality environment with a within-subject design, the study measured perceived danger through button presses and visualized proximity zones using contour density plots. Findings reveal that increasing lateral distance significantly decreases button press likelihood, particularly beyond 160 cm. Robot velocities of 1 mls and 1.5 mls showed no significant difference, suggesting pedestrians perceive them similarly due to their alignment with average walking speed. Proximity zones were consistently wider and denser on the left than the right, highlighting spatial asymmetry in perception. These results provide quantitative and visual insights for designing mobile robots in shared spaces. Future research should examine environmental and group dynamics and robot design to enhance safety and public acceptance in human-robot interactions.

Wi-Fi 7 introduces Multi-link operation (MLO) to enhance throughput and latency performance compared to previous Wi-Fi standards. MLO enables simultaneous transmission and reception through multiple links, departing from conventional single-link operations (SLO). To fully exploit MLO’s potential, it is essential to investigate Wi-Fi 7’s coexistence performance with legacy Wi-Fi devices. Existing approaches, however, have overlooked some crucial aspects of MLO, necessitating the development of a standards-compliant analytical framework to model the actual channel access mechanism of MLO. Therefore, this research aims to addresses this gap by constructing an accurate Markov chain model for MLO aligned with the backoff behaviors specified by the standard, and by deriving closed-form expressions for the throughput of each device type in the Wi-Fi 7 and legacy Wi-Fi coexistence scenario.

We analyzed the button input method of infotainment systems as part of the in-vehicle information system (IVIS) interface and related research. As IVIS becomes more complex and the need for driver-vehicle interaction increases, so does the potential risk that accompanies driver input. In this study, we propose to analyze the influence of the touch button shape, background, button and text color combination, and the presence/absence of a button border on the usability of the button input operation, which has not been studied before. Thus, participants were made to perform a button press operation in various combined conditions in a driving simulator. For keypads of the same diagonal length, we recommend a square-shaped touch keypad. In addition, the use of an edge and a specific color combination has a positive effect on the overall task performance and user satisfaction. These results are expected to be useful in the development of effective IVIS information display and input.