ExCITE Project: A Review of Forty-Two Months of Robotic Telepresence Technology Evolution

This article reports on the EU project ExCITE with specific focus on the technical development of the telepresence platform over a period of 42 months. The aim of the project was to assess the robustness and validity of the mobile robotic telepresence (MRP) system Giraff as a means to support elderly people and to foster their social interaction and participation. Embracing the idea of user-centered product refinement, the robot was tested over long periods of time in real homes. As such, the system development was driven by a strong involvement of elderly people and their caregivers but also by technical challenges associated with deploying the robot in real-world contexts. The results of the 42-months’ long evaluation is a system suitable for use in homes rather than a generic system suitable, for example, in office environments.

[1]  Hugh Durrant-Whyte,et al.  Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM): part II , 2006 .

[2]  François Michaud,et al.  A Pilot Study on Teleoperated Mobile Robots in Home Environments , 2006, 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[3]  Amedeo Cesta,et al.  Long-Term Evaluation of a Telepresence Robot for the Elderly: Methodology and Ecological Case Study , 2016, International Journal of Social Robotics.

[4]  Amedeo Cesta,et al.  Addressing the Long-term Evaluation of a Telepresence Robot for the Elderly , 2016, ICAART.

[5]  François Michaud,et al.  Exploratory design and evaluation of a homecare teleassistive mobile robotic system , 2010 .

[6]  Annica Kristoffersson,et al.  The Effect of Field of View on Social Interaction in Mobile Robotic Telepresence Systems , 2014, 2014 9th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[7]  Horst-Michael Groß,et al.  Progress in developing a socially assistive mobile home robot companion for the elderly with mild cognitive impairment , 2011, 2011 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[8]  Amedeo Cesta,et al.  Into the Wild : Pushing a Telepresence Robot Outside the Lab * , 2012 .

[9]  Daniel J. Brooks,et al.  Designing Telepresence Robot Systems for Use by People with Special Needs , 2011 .

[10]  Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte,et al.  Simultaneous localization and mapping: part I , 2006, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

[11]  José-Raúl Ruiz-Sarmiento,et al.  Building and Exploiting Maps in a Telepresence Robotic Application , 2013, ICINCO.

[12]  Silvia Coradeschi,et al.  Assessment of interaction quality in mobile robotic telepresence: An elderly perspective , 2014 .

[13]  Simon H. A. Begemann,et al.  Daylight, artificial light and people in an office environment, overview of visual and biological responses , 1997 .

[14]  A. Kendon.  Conducting Interaction: Patterns of Behavior in Focused Encounters , 1990 .

[15]  Amy Loutfi,et al.  Using a mental workload index as a measure of usability of a user interface for social robotic telepresence , 2012, Ro-Man 2012.

[16]  Annica Kristoffersson,et al.  Auditory Immersion with Stereo Sound in a Mobile Robotic Telepresence System , 2015, HRI.

[17]  Silvia Coradeschi,et al.  Towards Measuring Quality of Interaction in Mobile Robotic Telepresence using Sociometric Badges , 2013, Paladyn J. Behav. Robotics.

[18]  Luis Russo,et al.  Who shall survive?: Foundations of sociometry group psychotherapy and sociodrama , 2010 .

[19]  Yeh-Liang Hsu,et al.  Developing a telepresence robot for interpersonal communication with the elderly in a home environment. , 2007, Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association.

[20]  Katherine M. Tsui,et al.  Design Challenges and Guidelines for Social Interaction Using Mobile Telepresence Robots , 2013 .

[21]  Silvia Coradeschi,et al.  An Exploratory Study of Health Professionals' Attitudes about Robotic Telepresence Technology , 2011 .

[22]  José-Raúl Ruiz-Sarmiento,et al.  Technical improvements of the Giraff telepresence robot based on users' evaluation , 2012, 2012 IEEE RO-MAN: The 21st IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication.

[23]  Jacob L. Moreno,et al.  Who shall survive? : foundations of sociometry, group psychotherapy, and sociodrama , 1953 .

[24]  H. Corriveau,et al.  A qualitative study of in-home robotic telepresence for home care of community-living elderly subjects , 2007, Journal of telemedicine and telecare.

[25]  Cipriano Galindo,et al.  Evaluation of a Telepresence Robot for the Elderly: A Spanish Experience , 2013, IWINAC.

[26]  Leila Takayama,et al.  "Now, i have a body": uses and social norms for mobile remote presence in the workplace , 2011, CHI.

[27]  Arash Saifhashemi,et al.  MILO: personal robot platform , 2005, 2005 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[28]  Florent Lamiraux,et al.  Obstacles avoidance for car-like robots integration and experimentation on two robots , 2004, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004. Proceedings. ICRA '04. 2004.

[29]  Amedeo Cesta,et al.  Evaluating Telepresence Robots in the Field , 2012, ICAART.

[30]  Amedeo Cesta,et al.  Assessing affective response of older users to a telepresence robot using a combination of psychophysiological measures , 2012, 2012 IEEE RO-MAN: The 21st IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication.

[31]  Peter Kearns,et al.  Reactions to a remote-controlled video-communication robot in seniors' homes: a pilot study of feasibility and acceptance. , 2012, Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association.

[32]  Cipriano Galindo,et al.  Evaluation of using semi-autonomy features in mobile robotic telepresence systems , 2015, 2015 IEEE 7th International Conference on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems (CIS) and IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics (RAM).

[33]  Annica Kristoffersson,et al.  Measuring the Quality of Interaction in Mobile Robotic Telepresence: A Pilot’s Perspective , 2013, Int. J. Soc. Robotics.

[34]  Katherine M. Tsui,et al.  Essential features of telepresence robots , 2011, 2011 IEEE Conference on Technologies for Practical Robot Applications.

[35]  Amy Loutfi,et al.  Using Augmented Reality to Improve Usability of the User Interface for Driving a Telepresence Robot , 2013, Paladyn J. Behav. Robotics.

[36]  Leila Takayama,et al.  Mobile remote presence systems for older adults: Acceptance, Benefits, and Concerns , 2011, 2011 6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[37]  Katherine M. Tsui,et al.  Iterative design of a semi-autonomous social telepresence robot research platform: a chronology , 2014, Intell. Serv. Robotics.

[38]  Annica Kristoffersson,et al.  Combining Semi-autonomous Navigation with Manned Behaviour in a Cooperative Driving System for Mobile Robotic Telepresence , 2014, ECCV Workshops.

[39]  Sebastian Thrun,et al.  Probabilistic robotics , 2002, CACM.

[40]  Silvia Coradeschi,et al.  A Review of Mobile Robotic Telepresence , 2013, Adv. Hum. Comput. Interact..