Quadruped robots have the potential to guide blind and low vision (BLV) people due to their highly flexible locomotion and emotional value provided by their bionic forms. However, the development of quadruped guide robots rarely involves BLV users' participatory designs and evaluations. In this paper, we conducted two empirical experiments both in indoor controlled and outdoor field scenarios, exploring the benefits and drawbacks of quadruped guide robots. The results show that the nowadays commercial quadruped robots exposed significant disadvantages in usability and trust compared with wheeled robots. It is concluded that the moving gait and walking noise of quadruped robots would limit the guiding effectiveness to a certain extent, and the empathetic effect of its bionic form for BLV users could not be fully reflected. Based on the findings of wheeled robots and quadruped robots' advantages, we discuss the design implications for the future guide robot design for BLV users. This paper reports the first empirical experiment about quadruped guide robots with BLV users and preliminary explores their potential improvement space in substituting guide dogs, which can inspire the further specialized design of quadruped guide robots.

翻译：四足机器人凭借其高度灵活的运动能力和仿生形态提供的情感价值，具备引导盲人与低视力（BLV）人群的潜力。然而，四足导盲机器人的开发鲜少涉及BLV用户的参与式设计与评估。本文在室内受控环境与室外实地场景中开展了两项实证实验，探讨四足导盲机器人的优势与不足。结果表明，当前商用四足机器人在可用性与信任度上相较于轮式机器人存在显著劣势。研究认为，四足机器人的运动步态与行走噪音会在一定程度上限制引导效能，其仿生形态对BLV用户的情感共情效应未能充分体现。基于轮式与四足机器人各自的优势发现，我们探讨了面向BLV用户未来导盲机器人设计的启示。本文报告了首个涉及BLV用户的四足导盲机器人实证实验，初步探索了其替代导盲犬的潜在改进空间，可为四足导盲机器人的进一步专业设计提供启发。