{"id":105972,"date":"2024-10-15T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/industry-science.com\/?post_type=article&p=105972"},"modified":"2025-02-04T14:07:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T13:07:59","slug":"from-pixels-to-presence","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/industry-science.com\/en\/articles\/from-pixels-to-presence\/","title":{"rendered":"From Pixels to Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today’s world presents several contemporary global challenges that weave through society and encompass professional and social life. Most prominently the current climate change as well as the rippling effects of the COVID-19 pandemic ask for solutions to remote interaction and collaboration, reducing travel while still maintaining social interaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the advancement in electronics, robotics, as well as information and communication technology in the second half of the 20th century, increasingly sophisticated teleoperative systems became possible. Today, those systems are used particularly in areas where people would reach or exceed, e.g. personal, safety or spatial, limits when facing those challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TPRs, by enabling remote interaction and collaboration, significantly reduce the need for travel, thereby contributing to the reduction of carbon emissions associated with transportation. Moreover, these robots facilitate the seamless integration of remote and hybrid work models, aligning with the digital transformation that reshapes modern workplaces by enhancing productivity and communication. Additionally, in the post-COVID era, TPRs offer innovative ways to maintain social connections and ensure inclusivity, bridging the gap created by physical distancing and supporting mental well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the maturity of the available technological components for creating TPRs tailored to various specific tasks and needs, the most important question is how to establish an appropriate work\/interaction environment where the potential present in TPRs can best be used for supporting the climate, digital and social transformation seen today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Figure 1 illustrates, TPRs currently combine a mobile video conferencing system that can be controlled remotely and be equipped with additional tools to manipulate the remote environment. The characteristic feature of a TPR is that a remote user can use a computer or mobile device to control the TPR in a different location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TPR allows the remote user to move autonomously and interact with the remote environment, i.e., remote infrastructure\/machines and other users. For the local user, the perception of the remote user (driver) is also changed\u2014they appear more socially present (telepresent, first described by Minsky [1]) and real than, for example, on a screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Telepresence
Figure 1: Telepresence Robot System [2].<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Telepresence application domains<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Telepresence systems are described in a plethora of contexts that each make use of different aspects of telepresence and\/or robotics to solve challenges specific to the context. Youssef et al. [3<\/a>] give a concise overview of different application areas described in recent scientific literature\u2014see Figure 2 for an overview. They found most research interest to be in the domains of care and assistance, medicine and healthcare, education, and industrial applications. However, telepresence solutions covering more social aspects, like virtual tours, conference attendance or entertainment were also found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Different
Figure 2: Different application areas for TPRs (adapted from [4]<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Due to the advancement of medicine, electronics, and communication technology, combined with declining birth rates, especially in industrialized countries, there is a growing need for care and assistance for the elderly [4]. It is estimated that robot-assisted surgeries, wearable devices, and sensors can save up to three million lives each year [5]. TPRs are also used for virtual consultations in the medical and care context to facilitate communication between doctors and isolated patients [6]. In teaching, TPRs can bring teachers and learners from different locations together virtually [7].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, students with chronic illnesses or reduced mobility can be brought into an educational context with less effort [8]. While remote work has been on research agendas for decades, the COVID-19 pandemic raised the number of functional remote working and learning solutions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Industry representatives have thus been found to support TPR usage as it saves time, resources, and CO2<\/sub> emissions [9<\/a>]. When deployed on the shop floor, several use cases have been explored to date: internal production audits, product development, vocational training, quality control, equipment setup, maintenance, and logistics [10, 11<\/a>].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an international context, i.e., meetings of multinational working in diverse locations as well as international conference attendance, participants have been shown to profit from TPR-enabled virtual participation. With TPRs, attendance can easily be extended to remote lab tours or site visits, thus going beyond the possibilities of video conferencing [12\u201214<\/a>].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the pandemic, TPRs were newly deployed in cultural institutions like museums [15], allowing for joint visits by on-site visitors and remote persons. At the same time, virtual tours, which enable a more comprehensive visit to a museum, were tested [16]. In the aftermath of COVID-19, TPRs still allow for remote participation with family and friends over (long) distances. These shared activities have been shown to increase well-being as well as reduce the feeling of isolation [17]\u2014while saving travel costs and CO2<\/sub> emissions as a positive side effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given this broad spectrum of potential use cases, the question arises whether the currently available TPRs are meeting the requirements of their users and, if not, whether additional requirements can be generalized over different use case. The purpose of this paper is to outline the basic requirements for the human-centered development of TPRs, leveraging advances in robotics, sensing, and communication technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case 1: Integrating TPRs in industrial workflows.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Having a TPR present in a manufacturing environment, especially on the shopfloor, poses a unique set of demands to integrate TPRs into existing workflows, stemming from the environmental conditions of modern manufacturing, maintenance, and inspection tasks. The case study in the field with multiple partner companies follows an iterative, methodical approach divided into two phases: in the first phase, which is presented subsequently, requirements from the application domain are elicited, forming the basis for the second phase. Here, a TPR is designed and implemented to fulfill those requirements in specified workflows; evaluation of the quality of implementation closes phase 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To gather insights from different perspectives, requirements elicitation was conducted with industry experts. The participants have backgrounds in the field of robotics and software development or come with industry expertise in manufacturing load carriers (for intralogistics). All participants had prior experience providing services for industrial B2B customers and are required to travel extensively on business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the start of the initial workshop, all participants (n=12) were familiarized with the available TPRs to have a common understanding of the robots\u2019 capabilities. To start the process, three state of the art TPRs\u2014Temi by temi Robots as a Service, Double 3 by Double Robotics and OhmniPro by OhmniLabs\u2014were presented in terms of (dis-)advantages, technical requirements for use, and existing application areas. After this presentation, participants gained initial experience in the TPRs\u2019 operation and driving characteristics. These experiences were discussed, and participants came up with five scenarios of potential TPR deployment in a moderated discussion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n