Related papers: The $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE Competition Adva…

The ANA Avatar XPRIZE was a four-year competition to develop a robotic "avatar" system to allow a human operator to sense, communicate, and act in a remote environment as though physically present. The competition featured a unique…

Robotic avatar systems promise to bridge distances and reduce the need for travel. We present the updated NimbRo avatar system, winner of the $5M grand prize at the international ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition, which required participants to…

Robotic avatar systems can enable immersive telepresence with locomotion, manipulation, and communication capabilities. We present such an avatar system, based on the key components of immersive 3D visualization and transparent…

This paper reports on Team Northeastern's Avatar system for telepresence, and our holistic approach to meet the ANA Avatar XPRIZE Final testing task requirements. The system features a dual-arm configuration with hydraulically actuated…

Robotic teleoperation is a key technology for a wide variety of applications. It allows sending robots instead of humans in remote, possibly dangerous locations while still using the human brain with its enormous knowledge and creativity,…

This paper discusses the necessary considerations and adjustments that allow a recently proposed avatar system architecture to be used with different robotic avatar morphologies (both wheeled and legged robots with various types of hands…

Haptic perception is highly important for immersive teleoperation of robots, especially for accomplishing manipulation tasks. We propose a low-cost haptic sensing and rendering system, which is capable of detecting and displaying surface…

We present an avatar system designed to facilitate the embodiment of humanoid robots by human operators, validated through iCub3, a humanoid developed at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). More precisely, the contribution of the…

Using a robotic platform for telepresence applications has gained paramount importance in this decade. Scenarios such as remote meetings, group discussions, and presentations/talks in seminars and conferences get much attention in this…

The Alexa Prize program has empowered numerous university students to explore, experiment, and showcase their talents in building conversational agents through challenges like the SocialBot Grand Challenge and the TaskBot Challenge. As…

Robotic avatars promise immersive teleoperation with human-like manipulation and communication capabilities. We present such an avatar system, based on the key components of immersive 3D visualization and transparent force-feedback…

AI and robotics technologies have witnessed remarkable advancements in the past decade, revolutionizing work patterns and opportunities in various domains. The application of these technologies has propelled society towards an era of…

Although telepresence assistive robots have made significant progress, they still lack the sense of realism and physical presence of the remote operator. This results in a lack of trust and adoption of such robots. In this paper, we…

People feel attached to places that are meaningful to them, which psychological research calls "place attachment." Place attachment is associated with self-identity, self-continuity, and psychological well-being. Even small cues, including…

Facial animation in virtual reality environments is essential for applications that necessitate clear visibility of the user's face and the ability to convey emotional signals. In our scenario, we animate the face of an operator who…

Since its inception in 2016, the Alexa Prize program has enabled hundreds of university students to explore and compete to develop conversational agents through the SocialBot Grand Challenge. The goal of the challenge is to build agents…

VR Facial Animation is necessary in applications requiring clear view of the face, even though a VR headset is worn. In our case, we aim to animate the face of an operator who is controlling our robotic avatar system. We propose a real-time…

In this paper, we explore the design and use of conversational telepresence robots to help homebound older adults interact with the external world. An initial needfinding study (N=8) using video vignettes revealed older adults' experiential…

Teleoperated avatar robots allow people to transport their manipulation skills to environments that may be difficult or dangerous to work in. Current systems are able to give operators direct control of many components of the robot to…

Open-domain social dialogue is one of the long-standing goals of Artificial Intelligence. This year, the Amazon Alexa Prize challenge was announced for the first time, where real customers get to rate systems developed by leading…