Telerobotic Research Articles

Telepresence Robots in the Context of Dementia Caregiving: Caregivers’ and Care Recipients’ Perspectives

As a result of a rapidly aging population and the increasing prevalence of dementia among older adults, technological solutions are increasingly being considered to facilitate caregiving. This research investigates the perspectives of 20 caregiving dyads on VGo, a telepresence social robot with features designed to support caregiving. Care recipients (CRs), aged 65 and older, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, along with their primary caregivers (CGs), evaluated the robot through an online interview study. The interviews integrated informative videos showcasing VGo’s features and functions. Insights from the interviews revealed diverse expectations, interests, and reservations. The majority of CGs and their CRs perceived the robot’s features as beneficial. In particular, the voice command capability was appreciated as an alternative to using smartphones and as a way to manage home appliances. The community feature, however, did not align well with many participants’ lifestyles, and participants had a number of suggestions to enhance the robot’s notification function. Based on the interview results, the study offers a set of design recommendations for telepresence social robots in home caregiving contexts. This investigation highlights the promise of social robots in caregiving contexts and underscores the need for further improvements to ensure they fit users’ needs.

A review of navigation techniques for telepresence robots

Nowadays the need for digital travel has increased more than ever. This is due to the need for social distancing for medical reasons, economy of travelling, and avoidance of risks involved in physical travelling or for convenience. The telepresence robot therefore serves as a surrogate for the pilot user. Telepresence robots are very resourceful and versatile. Their applications include education; medicine; business; research and ambient assisted living. A major consideration for the effective functioning of telepresence robots is the navigation scheme employed which is central to its overall reliability. Depending on the use to which the robot is to be put, several authors have considered various navigation schemes used to effectively control and navigate in workspace consisting of obstacles and/or order robots. This work aims to review the navigation technique that has been employed by researchers for telepresence robots with a view to identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the various navigation techniques and subsequently coming up with a relatively novel system of navigation that attemts to mitigate the various weaknesses of the previous methodologies for telepresence robot navigation. It has been observed that the general path planning and navigation for the usual autonomous robot is also applicable to the telepresence robot but bearing in mind that the robot is being piloted by humans and it is only when in a condition where it would be cumbersome for the humans that autonomous control system takes over. At such times path planning and navigation using AI methods have proved to be of importance. The path planning algorithms have been shown to be categorized into two viz: global path planning algorithms which are used for known environments and local path planning algorithms for unknown or partially known environments. The algorithms for local path planning are majorly reactive in attribute and are more relevant to telepresence robots. In any particular application, an appropriate blend of a number of these algorithms is employed to achieve desired navigation objectives. Furthermore, in this work, we propose the combination of a line follower robot with an obstacle avoidance algorithm for situations where the expected robot paths are foreknown.

Longitudinal Study of Mobile Telepresence Robots in Older Adults’ Homes: Uses, Social Connection, and Comfort with Technology

Mobile telepresence robots can help reduce loneliness by facilitating people to visit each other and have more social presence than visiting via video or audio calls. However, using new technology can be challenging for many older adults. In this article, we examine how older adults use and want to use mobile telepresence robots, how these robots affect their social connection, and how they can be improved for older adults’ use. We placed a mobile telepresence robot in the home of older adult primary participants ( N = 7; age 60 \(+\) ) for 7 months and facilitated monthly activities between them and a secondary participant ( N = 8; age 18 \(+\) ) of their choice. Participants used the robots as they liked between monthly activities. We collected diary entries and monthly interviews from primary participants and a final interview from secondary participants. Results indicate that older adults found many creative uses for the robots, including conversations, board games, and hide “n” seek. Several participants felt more socially connected with others and a few had improved their comfort with technology because of their use of the robot. They also suggested design recommendations and updates for the robots related to size, mobility, and more, which can help practitioners improve robots for older adults’ use.

Retraction notice: Telepresence robots in libraries: applications and challenges

Retraction notice: Telepresence robots in libraries: applications and challenges

Retraction notice: Application and use of telepresence robots in libraries and information center services: prospect and challenges

Retraction notice: Application and use of telepresence robots in libraries and information center services: prospect and challenges

Design and experiment of coconut picking robot with climbing

Due to the height of coconut trees and the high risks associated with manual picking, there is a severe shortage of labor in the coconut picking industry in Hainan. To address this issue, a coconut picking robot was designed and constructed. In this study, the robot was mainly composed of tree climber and 3 degree of freedom (DoF) manipulator. The robot integrated two functions of tree climbing and coconut picking. The 3D model of the picking robot was designed through SOLIDWORKS. Furthermore, the statics and dynamics simulation of the robot were implemented through ANSYS and ADAMS. With STM32 as the core, an embedded remote control system based on CAN bus communication protocol was developed. And a multi-channel remote controller handle was used to control the robot to realize tree climbing and coconut picking. According to the test results, the robot could successfully climb trees up to 13.42 m tall. The average climbing time of coconut picking robot on 10 coconut trees was 152.3 s, and the average picking time was 222.1 s. Specifically, for coconut trees with height ranging from 7.03 m to 11.5 m, inclination ranging from 78° to 90° and diameter ranging from 21.08 cm to 30.20 cm, the average climbing time of the coconut picking robot was 147.7 s. The average climbing time for the remaining trees was 162.9 s. For the above types of trees, the robot could climb to the top of the trees more quickly, demonstrating better climbing performance. This study provides technical support for mechanized coconut picking and will inspire the development of coconut picking robots.

Design of Mechatronics Based Virtual Telepresence for Robotic System Using Raspberry Python Interpreter

A telepresence robot is a remote-controlled, wheeled device with a display to enable video streaming which enable the participants to view remote locations, as if they were there. The project consists of a VR headset, with a smartphone in dual screen to experience virtual reality and 4 wheeled robotic vehicles. The movement of the Robot is controlled using a remote controller. The motion of the camera of the robot is controlled by the accelerometer and magnetometer data processed by Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Video streamed is received by the smartphone using the IP address specified by the Raspberry Pi. This robot with a camera is placed in a remote location to capture the environment in visual form using Raspberry Pi (R Pi).The captured visuals are displayed on the user’s virtual reality (VR) headset. An added feature allows the camera to move in the direction of the user’s head movements. This gives the user a real-time experience as if he is present where the robot is located. The robot can also be moved in any direction through an app installed in the user’s smartphone.

3D Visual Grounding-Audio: 3D scene object detection based on audio

3D Visual Grounding (3DVG) is a prevalent multi-modal information fusion task capable of accurately localizing target objects referenced in natural language descriptions within a point cloud scene. Nevertheless, the stringent demands for input and output devices present substantial hurdles for the application and integration of 3DVG in fields like remote robotic control and telemedicine. To address this challenge, we introduce several innovative approaches. Firstly, we have initiated a novel multi-modal task, termed 3D Visual Grounding-Audio (3DVG-Audio), which is based on the fusion of audio and point cloud. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first instance of an Audio-Point Cloud multi-modal task. 3DVG-Audio achieves precise localization of audio-mentioned objects within the point cloud by utilizing the point cloud in conjunction with the corresponding audio input. Secondly, building upon the ScanRefer, we have developed a novel dataset named 3DVG-AudioSet, specifically designed for the training and evaluation of the 3DVG-Audio method. Finally, we have crafted a tailored loss function to further enhance the performance of 3DVG-Audio and introduced a method named AP-Refer, which serves as a benchmark for the task. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the potential for deep integration of audio and point cloud to tackle complex real-world challenges. AP-Refer has successfully addressed the 3DVG-Audio, circumventing the limitations of conventional 3DVG methods, and exhibits significant application potential.

An Adaptive and Automatic Power Supply Distribution System with Active Landmarks for Autonomous Mobile Robots.

With the development of automation and intelligent technologies, the demand for autonomous mobile robots in the industry has surged to alleviate labor-intensive tasks and mitigate labor shortages. However, conventional industrial mobile robots' route-tracking algorithms typically rely on passive markers, leading to issues such as inflexibility in changing routes and high deployment costs. To address these challenges, this study proposes a novel approach utilizing active landmarks-battery-powered luminous landmarks that enable robots to recognize and adapt to flexible navigation requirements. However, the reliance on batteries necessitates frequent recharging, prompting the development of an automatic power supply system. This system integrates omnidirectional contact electrodes on mobile robots, allowing to recharge active landmarks without precise positional alignment. Despite these advancements, challenges such as the large size of electrodes and non-adaptive battery charging across landmarks persist, affecting system efficiency. To mitigate these issues, this research focuses on miniaturizing active landmarks and optimizing power distribution among landmarks. The experimental results of this study demonstrated the effectiveness of our automatic power supply method and the high accuracy of landmark detection. Our power distribution calculation method can adaptively manage energy distribution, improving the system's persistence by nearly three times. This study aims to enhance the practicality and efficiency of mobile robot remote control systems utilizing active landmarks by simplifying installation processes and extending operational durations with adaptive and automatic power supply distribution.

Investigation of Low-Moral Actions by Malicious Anonymous Operators of Avatar Robots

Avatar robots allow a teleoperator to interact with the people and environment of a remote place. Malicious operators can use this technology to perpetrate malicious or low-moral actions. In this study, we used hazard identification workshops to identify low-moral actions that are possible through the locomotor movement, cameras, and microphones of an avatar robot. We conducted three workshops, each with four potential future users of avatars, to brainstorm possible low-moral actions. As avatars are not yet widespread, we gave participants experience with this technology by having them control both a simulated avatar and a real avatar as a malicious anonymous operator in a variety of situations. They also experienced sharing space with an avatar controlled by a malicious anonymous operator. We categorized the ideas generated from the workshops using affinity diagram analysis and identified four major categories: violate privacy and security, inhibit, annoy, and destroy or hurt. We also identified subcategories for each. In the second half of this study, we discuss all low-moral action subcategories in terms of their detection, mitigation, and prevention by studying literature from autonomous, social, teleoperated, and telepresence robots as well as other fields where relevant.

Sterowanie kobotem za pomocą wirtualnej rzeczywistości dla potrzeb Przemysłu 4.0

Industry 4.0 is undergoing continuous evolution. Management and monitoring systems implemented in the industrial infrastructure are able to collect and process more and more data, then, based on dedicated algorithms, make decisions, and consequently send specific control commands to devices and technological processes. At the same time, there is growing interest in combining devices with other seemingly disparate technologies. An example of creating such coexistence is the integration of sensory solutions with virtual reality. Such activities contribute to the creation of digital twins of devices and processes, which in turn enables remote and in many cases automatic control of physical objects and the course of real processes. In the course of this research, such an approach has been used to develop a solution that allows a robot to be controlled from anywhere and at any time. This work presents a prototype of a solution providing remote control of a cobot arm robot.

Antifriction characteristics of the magnetron sputtered MoS2 coating of ITER blanket module bolted joints in high vacuum at elevated temperature [formula omitted] =250 °C

The high values of bolt preload force Fa = 90–1200 kN created by the ITER remote handling system can be achieved by using dry coating lubricants such as magnetron sputtering film MoS2 or WS2. An expression was determined to estimate the contact pressure based on the number thread turns and the width of the thread contact area in fastened assemblies that used the Spiralock technology. This study investigated the tribological aspects of the magnetron sputtering MoS2 coating at different thicknesses hc = 6.4–21 μm, contact pressures pa = 20–1200 MPa against the spherical pin (austenitic stainless steel 316L(N)-IG) at elevated temperatures of T = 250 °C in vacuum pv = 10−2–10−3 Pa. Friction data for “humid” and “dry” rectangular specimens with MoS2 coating were obtained and compared. With an increase in the thickness of the coating from 6.4 μm to 21 μm, we obtained a distinct stabilization the friction coefficient of the low friction coating for each given regime of wear that diminished from 0.09 ± 0.010 to 0.05 ± 0.005. The wear mechanism of the “layered MoS2 coating/metal substrate” tribosystem resulted in significant plastic deformation along the sliding direction of the MoS2 solid lubricant as well as microgrooving and microploughing of the coating by the asperities of the flat contact spot of the spherical pin. Regardless of the type of bolted pair alloys used, we concluded that it is necessary to deposit a low friction coating on both the internal and external threads of the ITER blanket module bolted joints that use the Spiralock technology.

Comparison of Human-Drone Distancing Studies Across In-person and Online Modalities

Human-robot proxemics behaviors can vary based on personal, robot, and environmental factors which, along with their deployment in public-facing interactions, calls for an in-depth exploration. This paper explores the impact of altitude and safety modifications of small unmanned aerial vehicle (sUAV) on users’ comfortable interaction distance. By leveraging interaction techniques from literature like video, sound, and simulations, we explore personal space interactions in online studies (N=376) with the sUAV and the Double telepresence robot. We then compare the findings with our in-person interaction data (N=47). While in-person interactions are the ultimate goal, online methods can be used to reduce resources, allow larger sample sizes, and may lead to a more comprehensive sampling of population than would be expected from in-person studies. The lessons learned from this work are applicable broadly within the social robotics community, even outside those who are interested in proxemics interactions, to conduct future crowd-sourced experiments. The various modalities provided similar trends when compared with data from in-person studies. While the distances may not have been precise compared to those measured in the real world, these experiments are useful to detect patterns in human-robot interactions, and to conduct formative studies before committing resources to in-person testing.

Cybersecurity for tactical 6G networks: Threats, architecture, and intelligence

Edge intelligence, network autonomy, broadband satellite connectivity, and other concepts for private 6G networks are enabling new applications for public safety authorities, e.g., for police and rescue personnel. Enriched situational awareness, group communications with high-quality video, large scale IoT, and remote control of vehicles and robots will become available in any location and situation. We analyze cybersecurity in intelligent tactical bubbles, i.e., in autonomous rapidly deployable mobile networks for public safety operations. Machine learning plays major roles in enabling these networks to be rapidly orchestrated for different operations and in securing these networks from emerging threats, but also in enlarging the threat landscape. We explore applicability of different threat and risk analysis methods for mission-critical networked applications. We present the results of a joint risk prioritization study. We survey security solutions and propose a security architecture, which is founded on the current standardization activities for terrestrial and non-terrestrial 6G and leverages the concepts of machine learning-based security to protect mission-critical assets at the edge of the network.

Telepresence robots in mental health care to enable digital participation: A qualitative exploratory pilot study

Telepresence robots in mental health care to enable digital participation: A qualitative exploratory pilot study

Telepresence robotics in clinical education: Enhancing student engagement and learning outcomes

Telepresence robotics in clinical education: Enhancing student engagement and learning outcomes

Preliminary architecture design for human-in-the-loop control of robotic equipment in remote handling tasks: Case study on the NEFERTARI project

In this work, we present a general control architecture for robotic systems dedicated to the remote handling of in-vessel components in fusion machines. This control architecture will be tested for the inspection and maintenance of the first wall components of the RFX-mod2 experiment, in the scope of the New Equipment For the Experimental Research and Technological Advancement for the Rfx Infrastructure (NEFERTARI) project. The architecture is split into low-level and high-level layers. The former is used for the low-level control of the robotics systems and to manage safety; the latter is used for the high-level planning and implements several sub-modules, such as a Virtual Reality (VR) environment for the visualisation of the robot’s digital twin. Moreover, an Application Programming Interface (API) is intended to connect the two layers, and the communication between modules and layers is provided by the ROS2 framework. A typical usage of such a framework involves a human operator who is teleoperating the real robot, data from motor encoders are used as inputs for the dynamic model module. This module is used to compute the forward dynamics in real-time, providing an accurate simulation of the robot (digital twin) in the virtual environment.

Acceptance of a mobile telepresence robot used to teach adapted physical activity to isolated older adults: extending and testing the technology acceptance model.

This study aimed to investigate the acceptance of adapted physical activity (APA) by teachers and students before the use of a mobile telepresence robot (MTR), used to remotely supervise isolated older adults' physical activity. While previous studies have shown MTR to be fairly well accepted by older adults, nothing is known about its acceptance by APA teachers themselves. However, if they did not accept it, the MTR would not be used in the end. This would be a public health issue because isolated older adults would not benefit from supervised APA, yet beneficial to their health. To this end, 334 participants answered a survey that measured different psychological variables, based on the technology acceptance model (TAM). Student's t-tests and structural equation modeling were used for data processing. Results showed that, before use, there was not any significant difference between teachers' and students' acceptance of the MTR. Then, perceived usefulness for teaching APA, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, and intention to use the MTR were lower than the mean of the scale, while perceived usefulness for older adults was higher than the mean of the scale. Finally, this study has validated an extended version of the TAM (including the need for competence and MTR self-efficacy), which allowed it to explain 84.3% of the variance of the students' and APA teachers' intention to use the MTR for teaching APA to isolated older adults. Initial obstacles to the use of the MTR seem to exist on the part of APA teachers, prior to their first use, whereas this is not the case for older adults. APA teachers' acceptance should therefore be investigated in future studies to examine whether this trend is confirmed after the effective use of the MTR.

Robot remote control using virtual reality headset: studying sense of agency with subjective distance estimates

Mobile robots have many applications in the modern world. The autonomy of robots is increasing, but critical cases like search and rescue missions must involve the possibility of human intervention for ethical reasons and safety. To achieve effective human–robot interaction, the operator needs to have a sense of agency (SoA) over the activities of the robot. One possible way to increase one's SoA in remote control could be the use of VR technology. The remote control situation has some important features, so indicators of SoA need to be reproduced there independently. In our study, participants controlled a mobile robot using either a monitor or a VR-headset as an output device. In both cases, active control was contrasted with passive observation of the robot's movement. In each trial, participants estimated the distance traveled by the robot—a putative implicit indicator of SoA. A significant difference between subjective distance estimates was found in the active and passive conditions with the monitor, but not in the active and passive conditions with VR. The effect obtained in the monitor conditions suggests that distance estimates can be used as an implicit indicator of SoA in robot remote control. We believe that the lack of difference between the active and passive conditions in VR was caused by motion sickness due to a mismatch of visual and vestibular sensory cues, leading to a weakened SoA.

Clinical efficacy and performance evaluation of a bendable remote robot system for a bone tumour surgery: A pilot animal study.

Traditional open surgery for bone tumours sometimes has as a consequence an excessive removal of healthy bone tissue because of the limitations of rigid surgical instruments, increasing infection risk and recovery time. We propose a remote robot with a 4.5-mm diameter bendable end-effector, offering four degrees of freedom for accessing the inside of the bone and performing tumour debridement. The preclinical studies evaluated the effectiveness, clinical scenario, and usability across 12 total surgeries-six phantom surgeries and six bovine bone surgeries. Evaluation criteria included skin incision size, bone window size, surgical time, removal rate, and conversion to open surgery. Preclinical studies demonstrated that the robotic approach requires significantly smaller incision size and procedure times than traditional open curettage. This study validated the performance of the proposed system by assessing its preclinical effectiveness and optimising surgical methods using human phantom and bovine bone tumour models.