Introduction to Robots: Telepresence

So what makes a robot has been established. But certain variations exist which may not be perfectly clear. I'm going to speak about many of them in this book so I think I should define them.

Telepresence

Telepresence robots are basically mobile platforms. Someone in Hong Kong can take control of a telepresence robot in LA and use it to interact in a more physical manner than simply video conferencing.

Telepresence allows for a physical presence in a location that allows movement and interaction with the physical world. Normally these robots are essentially an iPad on wheels, but they are growing to be complete body replacements.

But, if a human is controlling the robot how can it be a robot. To answer that with a question, consider this. When a robot is given a verbal command is it still robot? Of course it is. Nearly all telepresence systems are usable because the human controlling them does not have to manage every little detail. A human can tell the robot to move forward, but the robot will detect and avoid obstacles along the way. It is much more a situation where the robot carries the human and the human just directs it. Much like riding a horse. You can command the horse to move forward but it will not walk off a cliff.

While telepresence is generally based on commands there is a form where a human uses telepresence to "jack into" a robot body. In this case the human will where a motion capture suit that tracks every movement the person makes and sends that to the robot. In addition to the motion capture the human may utilize virtual reality devices like the Oculus Rift to see what the robot sees as if they are there.

In this situation the human controls almost every little detail of the robots actions. It is not a rider-horse relationship. It is a man-inside a machine. This is technically not a robot.

Now I am going to break a rule. I have said that this book is about how robotics will affect the world and just spent a great deal of time explaining what a robot is. But, I am going to discuss the immersive telepresence, even though it may not be true robotics.

Here is the reason to discuss immersive telepresence. Humans are relying on machines more and more. There may come a time where we literally upload ourselves to those devices. But those devices must have the mechanical and software capability to accept such uploads. I am going to consider a machine with a human mind at it center to be a robot also. Not to become too philosophical but there is little difference between how an artificially intelligent machine is supposed to act as compared to a human intelligent machine.

As a side note, immersive telepresence will be a hugely vital robotics technology for the military and labor jobs in the future as well. And since telepresence is really a robotics sub-category machines within it are going to be discussed in this book.