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Mobile Robotic Telepresence (MRP) systems afford remote communication with an embodied physicality and autonomous mobility, which is thought to be useful for creating a sense of presence in hybrid activities. In this paper, drawing on phenomenology, we interviewed seven long term users of MRP to understand the lived experience of participating in hybrid spaces through a telepresence robot. The users' accounts show how the capabilities of the robot impact interactions, and how telepresence differs from in-person presence. Whilst not feeling as if they were really there, users felt present when they were being able to participate in local action and be treated as present. They also report standing out and being subject to behaviour amounting to 'othering'. We argue that these experiences point to a need for future work on telepresence to focus on giving remote users the means to exercise autonomy in ways that enable them to participate --- to be 'in on the action' --- rather than in ways that simply simulate being in-person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we explore the effective form of social presence for a tele-operated robot to provide customer service. Particularly, we address the question on if and how a teleoperated robot displays the presence of an operator, and what effects it would have on people's perception and behavior toward it. We launched a tele-operated robot in a supermarket and had it deliver recipe flyers. We adjusted the robot's social presence by showing or not showing the photo of an operator's face (F) and using or not using voice conversion (V), leading to three forms of presence: Wizard of Oz (F: no, V: yes), costume (F: yes, V: yes), and telepresence (F: yes, V: no), which indicated the operator's presence from a low to a high level. We determined that the customers behaved significantly different when they faced the tele-operated robot in different forms. Our robot that exhibited a moderate presence of the operator (costume form) achieved the overall best performance. Based on these findings, we discuss both the strengths and weaknesses of the three forms of presence for a tele-operated robot and recommend the appropriate form for various applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose unwinding the rotations experienced by the user of an immersive telepresence robot to improve comfort and reduce VR sickness of the user. By immersive telepresence we refer to a situation where a 360° camera on top of a mobile robot is streaming video and audio into a head-mounted display worn by a remote user possibly far away. Thus, it enables the user to be present at the robot's location, look around by turning the head and communicate with people near the robot. By unwinding the rotations of the camera frame, the user's viewpoint is not changed when the robot rotates. The user can change her viewpoint only by physically rotating in her local setting; as visual rotation without the corresponding vestibular stimulation is a major source of VR sickness, physical rotation by the user is expected to reduce VR sickness. We implemented unwinding the rotations for a simulated robot traversing a virtual environment and ran a user study (N=34) comparing unwinding rotations to user's viewpoint turning when the robot turns. Our results show that the users found unwound rotations more preferable and comfortable and that it reduced their level of VR sickness. We also present further results about the users' path integration capabilities, viewing directions, and subjective observations of the robot's speed and distances to simulated people and objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Navigating through an unknown, and perhaps resource-constrained environment, such as Lunar terrain or through a disaster region can be detrimental - e.g. both physically and cognitively exhausting. Difficulties during navigation can cost time, operational resources, or even a life. To this end, the interaction with a robotic exploration system in lunar or Martian environments could be key to successful exploration extravehicular activities (X-EVA). Through the use of augmented reality (AR) we can afford an astronaut with various capabilities. In particular, we focus on two: (1) The ability to obtain and display information on their current position, on important locations, and on essential objects in an augmented space. (2) The ability to control an exploratory robot system, or smart robotic tools using AR interfaces. We present our ongoing development of such AR robot control interfaces and the feedback system being implemented. This work extends the augmented reality robot navigation and audio spatial feedback components presented at the 2020 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) SUITS Challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With their ability to embody users in physically distant spaces, telepresence robots have gained popularity in environments including hospitals, schools, and offices. However, with platforms lacking in individuation and social presence, users often personalize telepresence robots with clothing and accessories to increase their recognizability and sense of embodiment. Toward understanding personalization preferences, as well as perceptions of personalized platforms, we conducted a series of five studies that investigate patterns in personalization of a telepresence robot and evaluate the impacts of common personalizations along five dimensions (robot uniqueness, humanness, pleasantness/unpleasantness, and people's willingness to interact with it). Finding a strong preference for the use of clothing and headwear in Studies 1-2 (N = 52), we systematically manipulated a robot's appearance using these items and evaluated the qualitative and quantitative impacts on observer perceptions in Studies 3-4 (N = 160). Observing that personalization increased perceptions of uniqueness and humanness, but also decreased positive responding, we then investigated the associations between personalization preferences and perceptions via a fifth study (N = 100). Across the five studies, tensions emerged between operators' interest in using wigs and interlocutors' dislike of wigs. This result highlights a need to consider both operator and interlocutor perspectives when personalizing telepresence robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel forms of two-player telegame interaction might extend and enhance social connection between physically separated persons. We examine the potential of a Rock-Paper-Scissors game conveyed via an embodied telepresence agent. We compare a game interaction with an autonomous robot and a game interaction with a teleoperated version of the same robot. Both systems are equipped with a perception module that processes and recognizes the hand movement of the human players colocated with the robot. In the classic interaction, the robot acts as the opponent player. In the telegame setting, the robot represents and mirrors the actions of the remote human player as the opponent. We integrate the systems on the tabletop robot platform Haru and evaluate user impressions with respect to game experience and robot sociality. Results show that the telegame is perceived more positively, indicating its potential for physically distant, but socially enhanced interaction in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telepresence robots act as the remote embodiments of human operators, enabling people to stay connected to friends, family, and coworkers over lengthy physical separations. However, the factors affecting how humans can best make use of such systems are not yet well understood. This paper explores the effects of personalization and relationship closeness on telepresence via two studies. Study 1 was a between-participants experiment that investigated telepresence robot personalization. 32 pairs of friends (N = 64) participated in the study's team-building-style activities and answered questions about robot operator presence. The results unexpectedly indicated that relationship closeness influenced the interaction experience more than any other considered predictor variable. To study closeness more rigorously as the central manipulation, we conducted Study 2, a between-participants experiment with 24 pairs (N = 48) and a similar procedure. Robot operators who reported a closer relationship with their teammate felt more present in this investigation. These findings can inform the design and application of telepresence robot systems to increase a remote operator's feelings of presence via robot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State-of-the-art social robot navigation algorithms often lack a thorough experimental validation in human environments: simulated evaluations are often conducted under unrealistically strong assumptions that prohibit deployment in real world environments; experimental demonstrations that are limited in sample size do not provide adequate evidence regarding the user experience and the robot behavior; field studies may suffer from the noise imposed by uncontrollable factors from the environment; controlled lab experiments often fail to properly enforce challenging interaction settings. This paper contributes a first step towards addressing the outlined gaps in the literature. We present an original experiment, designed to test the implicit interaction between a mobile robot and a group of navigating human participants, under challenging settings in a controlled lab environment. We conducted a large-scale, within-subjects design study with 105 participants, exposed to three different conditions, corresponding to three distinct navigation strategies, executed by a telepresence robot (two autonomous, one teleoperated). We analyzed observed human and robot trajectories, under close interaction settings and participants' impressions regarding the robot's behavior. Key findings, extracted from a comparative statistical analysis include: (1) evidence that human acceleration is lower when navigating around an autonomous robot compared to a teleoperated one; (2) the lack of evidence to support the conventional expectation that teleoperation would be humans' preferred strategy. To the best of our knowledge, our study is unique in terms of goals, settings, thoroughness of evaluation and sample size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telepresence robots provide remote team members with embodied presence, but whether this improves remote teammate participation, remote users' perceptions of team collaboration, or collocated members' perceptions of remote teammates is an open question. We conducted an experiment in which teams of two collocated members and one telepresent (remote) member solved a word puzzle requiring a translation key. We varied who had access to the key to examine effects of resource accessibility in distributed groups: in the Robot Information condition, the remote pilot (RP) possessed the key; in the Shared Information condition, all team members possessed the key; in the Local Information condition, only collocated participants (CPs) possessed the key. Audio transcripts were analyzed for differences in the number of words spoken by each team member. RPs spoke significantly less than CPs, especially when they lacked the translation key. RPs perceived greater task difficulty and less ease of communication than CPs. CPs rated other CPs as more trustworthy than RPs. This suggests an imbalance between collocated and remote collaborators that can negatively affect collaboration. We discuss implications for the design and use of telepresence robots in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general problem addressed in this paper is supporting a more efficient communication between remote users, who control telepresence robots, and people in the local setting. The design of most telepresence robots does not allow them to perform gestures. Given the key role of pointing in human communication, exploring design solutions for providing telepresence robots with deictic gesturing capabilities is, arguably, a timely research issue for Human-Robot Interaction. To address this issue, we conducted an empirical study, in which a set of low fidelity prototypes, illustrating various designs of a robot's gesture arm, were assessed by the participants (N=18). The study employed a mixed-method approach, a combination of a controlled experiment, elicitation study, and design provocation. The evidence collected in the study reveals participants' assessment of the designs, used in the study, and provides insights into participants' attitudes and expectations regarding gestural communication with telepresence robots in general [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Privacy-sensitive robotics is an emerging area of HRI research. Judgments about privacy would seem to be context-dependent, but none of the promising work on contextual "frames" has focused on privacy concerns. This work studies the impact of contextual "frames" on local users' privacy judgments in a home telepresence setting. Our methodology consists of using an online questionnaire to collect responses to animated videos of a telepresence robot after framing people with an introductory paragraph. The results of four studies indicate a large effect of manipulating the robot operator's identity between a stranger and a close confidante. It also appears that this framing effect persists throughout several videos. These findings serve to caution HRI researchers that a change in frame could cause their results to fail to replicate or generalize. We also recommend that robots be designed to encourage or discourage certain frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Privacy-sensitive robotics is an emerging area of HRI research. Judgments about privacy would seem to be context-dependent, but none of the promising work on contextual "frames" has focused on privacy concerns. This work studies the impact of contextual "frames" on local users' privacy judgments in a home telepresence setting. Our methodology consists of using an online questionnaire to collect responses to animated videos of a telepresence robot after framing people with an introductory paragraph. The results of four studies indicate a large effect of manipulating the robot operator's identity between a stranger and a close confidante. It also appears that this framing effect persists throughout several videos. These findings serve to caution HRI researchers that a change in frame could cause their results to fail to replicate or generalize. We also recommend that robots be designed to encourage or discourage certain frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general problem addressed in this paper is supporting a more efficient communication between remote users, who control telepresence robots, and people in the local setting. The design of most telepresence robots does not allow them to perform gestures. Given the key role of pointing in human communication, exploring design solutions for providing telepresence robots with deictic gesturing capabilities is, arguably, a timely research issue for Human-Robot Interaction. To address this issue, we conducted an empirical study, in which a set of low fidelity prototypes, illustrating various designs of a robot's gesture arm, were assessed by the participants (N=18). The study employed a mixed-method approach, a combination of a controlled experiment, elicitation study, and design provocation. The evidence collected in the study reveals participants' assessment of the designs, used in the study, and provides insights into participants' attitudes and expectations regarding gestural communication with telepresence robots in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of socio-relational context and robot's tactility on the sense of social presence and user satisfaction. We executed a 2(sociorelational context: an intimate remote sender vs. a non-intimate remote sender) x 2(tactility: anthropomorphic tactility vs. nonanthropomorphic tactility) within-participants experiment (N=24). As a result, participants felt a stronger sense of a remote sender's presence when the remote sender was an intimate person than a non-intimate person, and felt a greater sense of a remote sender's presence when a robot had an anthropomorphic tactility than when a robot had a non-anthropomorphic tactility. In addition, participants preferred a telepresence robot with an anthropomorphic tactility in the context that they interacted with an intimate person, whereas a telepresence robot with a nonanthropomorphic tactility was preferred in the context that they interact with a non-intimate person in robot-mediated communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays a significant part of human-human interaction takes place over distance. Tele-operated robot avatars, in which an operator's behaviours are portrayed by a robot proxy, have the potential to improve distance interaction, e.g., improving social presence and trust. However, having communication mediated by a robot changes the perception of the operator's appearance and behaviour, which have been shown to be used alongside vocal cues in judging personality. In this paper we present a study that investigates how robot mediation affects the way the personality of the operator is perceived. More specifically, we aim to investigate if judges of personality can be consistent in assessing personality traits, can agree with one another, can agree with operators' self-assessed personality, and shift their perceptions to incorporate characteristics associated with the robot's appearance. Our experiments show that (i) judges utilise robot appearance cues along with operator vocal cues to make their judgements, (ii) operators' arm gestures reproduced on the robot aid personality judgements, and (iii) how personality cues are perceived and evaluated through speech, gesture and robot appearance is highly operator-dependent. We discuss the implications of these results for both tele-operated and autonomous robots that aim to portray personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has made various efforts to produce human-like presence of autonomous social robots. However, such efforts often require costly equipment and complicated mechanisms. In this paper, we propose a new method that makes a user feel as if an autonomous robot is controlled by a remote operator, with virtually no cost. The basic idea is to manipulate people's knowledge about a robot by using priming technique. Through a series of experiments, we discovered that subjects tended to deduce the presence/absence of a remote operator based on their prior experience with that same remote operator. When they interacted with an autonomous robot after interacting with a teleoperated robot (i.e., a remote operator) whose appearance was identical as the autonomous robot, they tended to feel that they were still talking with the remote operator. The physically embodied talking behavior reminded the subjects of the remote operator's presence that was felt at the prior experience. Their deductions of the presence/absence of a remote operator were actually based on their "beliefs" that they had been interacting with a remote operator. Even if they had interacted with an autonomous robot under the guise of a remote operator, they tended to believe that they were interacting with a remote operator even when they subsequently interacted with an autonomous robot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports the advantages of using a child-operated telepresence robot system for the purpose of remote education. Video conferencing is already common in educational settings, where a foreign language is taught by a native teacher from a remote location; however, there is a serious issue in that children tend to have difficulties or freeze when facing teachers who speak a different language over a monitor. We hypothesize that a child-operated telepresence robot that offers physical participation and operability will help to address this issue. To investigate this hypothesis, we conduct a field experiment with 52 participants (4-8 years old) in classroom environments, and the use of a telepresence robot system is compared with a baseline Skype condition. The results show the advantages of the telepresence robot system for both children and teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robotic assistance through telepresence technology is an emerging area in aiding the visually impaired. By integrating the robotic perception of a remote environment and transferring it to a human user through haptic environmental feedback, the disabled user can increase one's capability to interact with remote environments through the telepresence robot. This paper presents a framework that integrates visual perception from heterogeneous vision sensors and enables real-time interactive haptic representation of the real world through a mobile manipulation robotic system. Specifically, a set of multi-disciplinary algorithms such as stereovision processes, three-dimensional map building algorithms, and virtual-proxy haptic rendering processes are integrated into a unified framework to accomplish the goal of real-world haptic exploration successfully. Results of our framework in an indoor environment are displayed, and its performances are analyzed. Quantitative results are provided along with qualitative results through a set of human subject testing. Our future work includes real-time haptic fusion of multi-modal environmental perception and more extensive human subject testing in a prolonged experimental design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does augmented movement capability improve people's experiences with telepresent meeting participants? We performed two web-based studies featuring videos of a telepresence robot. In the first study (N=164), participants observed clips of typical conversational gestures performed a) on a stationary screen only, b) with an actuated screen moving in physical space, or c) both on-screen and in-space. In the second study (N=103), participants viewed scenario videos depicting two people interacting with a remote collaborator through a telepresence robot, whose distant actions were a) visible on the screen only, or b) accompanied by local physical motion. These studies suggest that synchronized on-screen and in-space gestures significantly improved viewers' interpretation of the action compared to on-screen or in-space gestures alone, and that in-space gestures positively influenced perceptions of both local and remote participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telepresence refers to a set of technologies that allow users to feel present at a distant location; telerobotics is a subfield of telepresence. This paper presents the design and evaluation of a telepresence robot which allows for social expression. Our hypothesis is that a telerobot that communicates more than simply audio or video but also expressive gestures, body pose and proxemics, will allow for a more engaging and enjoyable interaction. An iterative design process of the MeBot platform is described in detail, as well as the design of supporting systems and various control interfaces. We conducted a human subject study where the effects of expressivity were measured. Our results show that a socially expressive robot was found to be more engaging and likable than a static one. It was also found that expressiveness contributes to more psychological involvement and better cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telepresence takes place when a user is afforded with the experience of being in a remote environment or virtual world, through the use of immersive technologies. A humanoid robot and a control apparatus that correlates the operator's movements whilst providing sufficient sensory feedback, encompass such immersive technologies. This paper considers the control mechanisms that afford telepresence, the requirements for continuous or extended telepresence control, and the health implications of engaging in complex time-constrained tasks. We present Telesuit - a full-body telepresence control system for operating a humanoid telepresence robot. The suit is part of a broader system that considers the constraints of controlling a dexterous bimanual robotic torso, and the need for modular hardware and software that allows for high-fidelity immersiveness. It incorporates a health-monitoring system that collects information such as respiratory effort, galvanic skin response, and heart rate. This information is consequently leveraged by the platform to adjust the telepresence experience and apply control modalities for autonomy. Furthermore, the design of the Telesuit garment considers both functionality and aesthetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eye-gaze interaction is a common control mode for people with limited mobility of their hands. Mobile robotic telepresence systems are increasingly used to promote social interaction between geographically dispersed people. We are interested in how gaze interaction can be applied to such robotic systems, in order to provide new opportunities for people with physical challenges. However, few studies have implemented gazeinteraction into a telepresence robot and it is still unclear how gaze-interaction within these robotic systems impacts users and how to improve the systems. This paper introduces our research project, which takes a two-phase approach towards investigating a novel interaction-system we developed. Results of these two studies are discussed and future plans are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telepresence robots hold the potential to allowabsent students to remain physically embodied and socially connected in the classroom. In this work, we investigate the effects of telepresence robot personalization on K-12 students' perceptions of the robot, perceptions of themselves, and feelings of self-presence. We conducted a betweensubjects, 2-condition user study (N=24) on robot personalization. In this study, 9- to 13-year-old participants remotely completed an educational exercise using a telepresence robot. Lessons learned from this study will inform our continued work on using remote presence robots to preserve the educational and social experiences of students during extended absences from school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telepresence facilitates social presence over geographically separated individuals and is commonplace in modern organizations. However, few studies explore individuals' perceptions of leadership and communication quality when such telepresence technologies are used. With consideration to the Human-to-Human Interaction Script Theory, a two-group posttest experiment was conducted between in-person and telepresence group leaders. Results indicated higher ratings of social attractiveness and leadership quality for the telepresence leader vs. the in-person leader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fact that we can see other face to face in the distance has become so natural with aoppearance of video calls. However, We developed a pair of devices that can transmit touch sense through the shoukder such as tapping, caressing, and pressing. The touch sensor on telepresence robot transmit touch feedback to a remote user wearing a haptic vest via wireless communication [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although telepresence robots that act as proxies for telecommuters are commercially available, few of them are designed for informal communication, which requires great social skills. In this work, we develop a novel robot system that automatically tracks a passing by person(called walker) in the office to simulate basic social skills for triggering informal communication at a distance. Moreover, we conduct an evaluation experiment with 70 participants in an unconstrained setting (a company's lounge) and confirm that automatic tracking of a walker makes him/her more aware of the telecommuter's mediated presence and feel more watched in comparison to traditional systems. However, we also observe that the interaction rate has not been improved, which infers that additional social skills are required such as an appropriate response from the robot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary concern of this study is to explore children's engagement and learning experiences in distant learning environments using three different videoconferencing technologies--two traditional screen-based videoconferencing technologies and a remotely-controlled telepresence robot. To truthfully capture the perspectives of the children, we employed multiple data collection methods--rating scales, narratives, ranking scales, and oneon- one interviews, as well as observation of nonverbal cues. Our findings suggest that participants reacted more positively to interactions via telepresence robot than to screen-based video-conferencing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work support for elderly people is gaining importance in an aging society. To this end, telepresence robots are expected to provide a promising solution as it could enable people even with some physical difficulties to work from their home. This paper reports our exploratory field trial in which an elderly person gave a lesson about a traditional paper craft to elementary school students over a two-way telepresence robot system. Ongoing development for the system after the trial is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current1assistive technologies need complicated, cumbersome, and expensive equipment, which are not user-friendly, not portable, and often require extensive fine motor control. Our approach aims at solving these problems by developing EXGbuds, a compact, non-obtrusive and ergonomic wearable device, to measure signals associated with human physiological gestures, and therefore generate useful commands to interact with the environment. Our innovation uses machine learning and non-invasive biosensors on top of the ears to identify eye movements and facial expressions with over 95% accuracy. Users can control different applications, such as a cell phone, powered wheelchair, smart home, or other IoT (Internet of Things) devices. Combined with VR headset, the user can use our technology to control a camera-mounted robot (e.g., telepresence robot, drone, or any robotic manipulator) to navigate around the environment in the first-person's view (FPV) simply by eye movements and facial expressions. It enables a intuitive way of interaction totally hands-free and touch-free. The experiments showed satisfactory results in different applications. Such method can be further applied on surgical robots to help surgeons change endoscopic camera's viewpoints by eye and facial expressions in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study was to understand what employees of continuing care retirement communities (CCRC) think about the smart presence technology. To better understand their perceptions of the benefits, concerns, and adoption criteria for smart presence systems we have conducted a needs assessment with CCRC employees who were given first-hand experience operating the BEAM as a pilot and local user. Participants indicated there is potential for smart presence technology in retirement communities and shared an equal number of benefits and concerns. The benefits that were mentioned included convenience and effort/time saving, visualization and socialization whereas the concerns that were mentioned included limitations of the system, emotional harm to others/residents and physical harm to others. It is important to understand such attitudes toward technology, because they are predictive of adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increased popularity and availability of mobile robotic telepresence systems during the last years, there has been little research that systematically compares these systems against more traditional systems, such as teleconference systems. In this work, we present a 40 person user study in a simulated one-on-one meeting scenario. In a between-subject design participants performed the Desert Survival Task with an unknown examiner's confederate either calling in using a conventional phone or beaming in using Beam system from Suitable Technologies [1]. In the study we also simulated a typical meeting disturbance. Several aspects of the discussion's effectiveness were assessed (e.g. connectivity, disturbance, problem solving, ease of collaboration) by using questionnaires as well as video observations. Our findings consistently corroborated a significantly more effective, natural and likeable interaction by using Beam. Though our scenario is real and a true pain point of many large corporations further studies will need to be carried out comparing such telepresence system to video conference systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our research focuses on improving the effectiveness and usability of driving mobile telepresence robots by increasing the user's sense of immersion during the navigation task. To this end we developed a robot platform that allows immersive navigation using head-tracked stereoscopic video and a HMD. We present the result of an initial user study that compares System Usability Scale (SUS) ratings of a robot teleoperation task using head-tracked stereo vision with a baseline fixed video feed and the effect of a low or high placement of the camera(s). Our results show significantly higher ratings for the fixed video condition and no effect of the camera placement. Future work will focus on examining the reasons for the lower ratings of stereo video and and also exploring further visual navigation interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This year's human-robot interaction (HRI) conference focuses on "robots in the loop" and how robots are capable of enhancing the experiences of human users in everyday life and work. Telepresence robots allow operators the ability to participate in remote locations through their mobility and live bidirectional audio and video feeds. Using robotic telepresence, students with chronic illnesses are attending their regular classes, physicians are conducting virtual "home visits" for recovering patients, and remote teammates are having conversations beyond the office conference room. This panel gathers experts from academia, business, and industry to discuss their experiences in developing robotic telepresences and "ah ha" moments reported from field use. Topics include how telepresence is defined, the practical use cases and application domains, the social and practical challenges encountered by operators and people physically present with the robots, and the implications for design of telepresence robots given these considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the results of standardized tests on a single subject with a stroke at 4, 20 and 28 weeks after completion of the study. These results follow from previous work [1]. The subject demonstrated sustained improvement in motor function 28 weeks after completing the study. In addition to quantitative results, the questionnaire results by the subject and the spouse testify that the subjective user experience was also positive. This further advocates the use of general purpose robots to complement human therapists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study on the effects of using virtual worlds as medium for interaction with telepresence robots. The Prototype for Assisted Communication PAC4 is also introduced. This system connects virtual worlds with real robots, allowing virtual world users to access the robot capabilities in a telepresence scenario. A user experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of PAC4 on the feeling of social presence experienced by virtual world users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telepresence robots are becoming increasingly popular and are increasingly ready to enter use in the real world as stand-ins for remote humans. It is useful, but currently uncommon, to provide the human operator with an approximation of peripheral vision and the ability to saccade around the scene. We have developed an interface which provides peripheral vision to a remote operator by using a motorized pan-tilt camera to create a panorama, and enables the operator to move the camera's gaze within that panorama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this case study, we examine the functional utility of an embodied agent as an interactive medium in stroke rehab. A set of physical rehab exercises is conducted through the direct engagement of an embodied agent, the uBot-5. Based on the preliminary data, we argue that a general-purpose embodied agent has a potential to functionally complement human therapists in providing rehab to stroke patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robotic telepresence, also known as telerobotics is a subfield of telepresence whose aim is to increase presence via embodiment in a robotic platform. In particular, robotic telepresence can be an effective tool to enhance social interaction suited to certain groups of users such as the elderly. The aim of this workshop is to address various aspects important for social robotic telepresence which include but are not limited to, (1) the mechanical design, (2) the user interface design, (3) the interaction between the remotely embodied person and the locally embodied person and (4) the perception of social robotic telepresence systems. Furthermore, we are interested in discovering the added value of spatial presence in the context of social telepresence and comparisons between robotic and non-robotic systems are of interest. We welcome contributions concerning results reached from the above mentioned areas of interest, user evaluation and methodologies, as well as reports from the deployment of social robotic solutions into real world contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telepresence-systems have the potential to take on an important role in on-orbit servicing scenarios. In comparison to manned missions, these systems offer a safer way to operate in outer space. One of the main goals of telepresence research is to learn whether immersive telepresence systems can achieve the efficiency of astronauts in typical mounting tasks, considering that astronauts' mobility is restricted by a range of factors including microgravity and space suits. In order to determine whether a telepresence system is more efficient in performing tasks compared to suited astronauts, an experimental study comparing both scenarios was accomplished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile robotic telepresence (MRP) has been introduced to allow communication from remote locations. Modern MRP systems offer rich capabilities for human-human interactions. However, simply driving a telepresence robot can become a burden especially for novice users, leaving no room for interaction at all. In this video we introduce a project which aims to incorporate advanced robotic algorithms into manned telepresence robots in a natural way to allow human-robot cooperation for safe driving. It also shows a very first implementation of cooperative driving based on extracting a safe drivable area in real time using the image stream received from the robot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robots at home and work has been a key theme in science fiction since the genre began. It is only now that we see this come in to realization, albeit in very basic forms such as the robot vacuum cleaners and various entertainment robotic platforms. In this video we highlight a number of projects woven around the iRobot Create research robot platform and an embodied conversational agent called the Prosthetic Head - an installation work by Stelarc. We start the visual journey by taking a satirical look at some of the parallels between a commercial communication product and the Prosthetic Head. The journey then moves through telepresence robotics, gesture based robot human interaction. The robots featured in the video are driven by an attention and behavioral system. Finally, the video concludes with a preview of the "Swarming Heads" - an interactive installation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]