Telepresence has been a promise in medicine that has been fulfilled partially by robots that can roam around the hospital and give you a video-conference connection to the patient, but nothing much more than that has been accomplished. Researchers from Tachi Lab, Keio University, are taking things quite a leap further with some new technology. Telesar V, a telepresence robot, translates your movements into the motions of the robot while giving sensory feedback from its eyes and hands.
The user wears a pair of VR goggles that control the robot’s head and see through its eyes. A pair of gloves control the robot’s hands, but, more impressively, also transmit force and temperature data from the robot’s sensors to the user’s skin. The Telesar V has a body, arms and hands (no legs as of yet). The robot can almost move as freely as a normal human, with 7 degrees of freedom for the body, 8 for the head, 7 for the arm joints and 15 for the hands. The ultimate goal is to create a robotic avatar, which enables you to do everything you do with your body identically with your remote robotic self. Watch the video below for some action footage:
Source: DigInfo TV: Telexistence Robot Avatar Transmits Sight, Hearing and Touch – TELESAR V…
More information: Tachi Lab…
