Telepresence Robots

Scenario

This week Barbara Owen is attending a conference in Budapest. A colleague is teaching her chemistry classes, but she also oversees a graduate team working on an important grant project. She is setting up now to meet with this team using a telepresence robot.

The robot is currently located in the lab where three of her students are working. Owen activates the device from Budapest, using her tablet computer. Once the connection is established, Owen’s face appears on the robot’s “head,” a flat-screen monitor with a camera, mic, and speakers that enable two-way communication. This head is attached by a rod to a rolling robotic base, which Owen can “drive” using controls on her tablet.

Maneuvering the robot takes a bit of practice, but when the driver takes a corner too fast, the students are quick to free a wheel that is caught on a table leg. Owen can even tilt the robot head (monitor) to get a better view, making it easier to move around the lab, review instrument readings, examine equipment, or talk one-on-one with individual students. During her half-hour visit, she is able to check student work, advise small changes, and ensure the project is on track for completion.

When she returns to campus, Owen hears that Jason, one of her undergraduate students, must respond to a family emergency. He can finish his classes online but will miss the last three labs of the semester. Owen suggests that Jason use the department’s telepresence robot to join his team in the lab.

Interested to see if this approach is viable, Owen steps into the lab to observe. Other members of Jason’s lab team are providing the “hands” for the experiment, but they appear to react to the robot as if it were Jason himself. They ask his opinion, hold up items to the monitor so he can see them better, and ask him to track read-outs on equipment.

1. What is it?

Most telepresence robots combine a mobile base with a small screen placed roughly at the height of a person—think of a tablet computer atop a mop handle anchored to a rolling platform. Network connections for the device are handled through standard Wi-Fi. The screen displays a person who is connected remotely by two-way audio and video, and that person can control the movement of the robot. The result is not unlike a videoconference but with the added dimensions of height (the face is at head height) and mobility (remote users can move the robot as if they were physically present). Remote users experience an approximation of being present, given the perspective and control that the robots provide. Telepresence robots can also mimic some human actions, such as turning a head to look around. These “mannerisms” create a sense of presence that encourages participants on both sides to interact in a more natural way. 

2. How does it work?

The physical base for telepresence robots tends to be a rolling platform. A remote user controls the robot by means of a tablet or browser, allowing the unit to be positioned in various places in the room and the head to turn at various angles so that the visitor can better view the remote environment. Some robots even have arms that can be moved. These robots are light enough to pick up, making it easy for people in the room to help them maneuver around furniture and other obstacles. Experimentation to date suggests the closer a face on the screen matches a human face in size, the more natural the interactions, creating a more immersive medium.

3. Who’s doing it?

Several institutions have investigated the use of these mechanisms in educational settings. A pilot program at the University of Central Florida experimented with telepresence robots, exploring their use in several learning and campus life scenarios, including substituting for a sick faculty member, visiting with a remote LMS vendor, and joining a lecture held in a large lecture hall. Researchers also tested a robot at the student union, studying reactions and interactions with students. The National Museum of Australia is experimenting with telepresence robots for students and other patrons who want to visit the exhibits but are restricted by distance-related expense, time constraints, or an inability to travel. The robot can interact with an educator who is part of the museum staff and pose questions and discuss answers in real time with visitors. Another use of telepresence robots allows home- or hospital-bound students to attend class remotely, creating an interchange between the distant student and classmates with a remarkable level of engagement. A home-bound student at Greenleaf Elementary School in Splendora, Texas, for example, has routinely attended classes using a telepresence robot. Students have consistently referred to the robot by the name of their remote classmate and reacted to it as if he were present.

4. Why is it significant?

Telepresence robots are part of a rapidly evolving area of technology that pushes the limits of how technology can augment or stand in for humans. In practical use, these devices constitute a more profound innovation in distance collaboration that mixes increased engagement with an element of fun. People report that these devices closely resemble interacting with the remote individual. The robots allow students and instructors who join from afar to move from a passive role to more active participation. Because they control what they see and where they are, they can move among study groups, examine items, and point out things missed by others. While the technology offers remote presence to anyone, it can be especially valuable in assistive use, connecting those with limited mobility with the wider community and promoting social interaction. When robots represent students in a class, those students engage with the community of learning and enjoy the camaraderie of colleagues. Telepresence robots in the homes of those with mobility impairment can enable televisits from doctors, rehabilitation coaches, or family members.

5. What are the downsides?

Although a remote user can drive a telepresence robot around a distant room, the wheels can get stuck on even small obstacles. One common solution is to assign a chaperone to see the hardware over bumps and turns and to reestablish a network connection when necessary. While on the move, the robot requires a robust Wi-Fi network connection; otherwise, issues can arise with the video stream. As with almost any electronic device, these robots could fall victim to hackers, perhaps spoofing the remote individual. Even though the cost of telepresence is falling, they remain expensive enough to discourage their use in large installations.

6. Where is it going?

As they evolve, telepresence robots will acquire greater autonomy and better remote manipulation. Hardware improvements that enable maneuvering in rough terrain could make them standard equipment for archeological digs and other field work, allowing visitors to examine faraway sites and experts to render opinions. In classrooms, robots may function as proctors or interact with students as tutors. Inside the classroom and out, these robots might soon recognize gesture-based commands, resulting in a motion-driven robotic telepresence that can raise its hand, point, or perform other movements to reflect those of a remote visitor. Similarly, avatars may emerge with facial expressions modeled on those of the people they represent. Developers have already begun to use smartphones to create telepresence robots by pairing them with a tiny wheeled robotic base. With such mini robots, the cost of robotic telepresence is dropping, hinting at a day when their use might become much more widespread. A future campus tour for a high-school class might feature a selected faculty member strolling along, making a circuit of the grounds and buildings, followed by a rolling bevy of robots, or perhaps a swarm of flying telepresences, each standing in for a potential student.

7. What are the implications for teaching and learning?

Telepresence allows guest speakers to join a classroom, move about to inspect student work, examine artifacts, or assess lab efforts. The robots also provide access to the field in ways that may not have previously been possible. They enable remote visits to teaching museums, labs, and libraries where they support one-on-one collaboration with curators, scientists, and librarians. This type of robot could contribute to health care by, for example, representing consulting doctors during surgery. Although other telecommunication technologies might serve for some of the above purposes, what makes these robots particularly effective is their ability to enable human communication not only through voice but also through expression and movement. Those who have used these tools in academic settings remark on the way participants are willing to help the robot get a better view or maneuver around obstacles. Telepresence robots show the ways in which people are able to see beyond the hardware and interact with other people as if they were present in the same room.

DECEMBER 2013

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