Adding expressive gesturing capabilities to teleprescence robots to improve social connectedness

What is it about?

Despite their technical advancements, commercially available telerobots are limited in social interaction capabilities for both pilot and local users, specifically in nonverbal communication, such as expressive gesturing and tangible interaction capabilities (e.g., handshakes, fist bumps). To investigate the affordances to social connection that gestures and tangible interactions provide in telerobot-mediated interactions, we designed and integrated a lightweight arm and hand onto a commercially available telerobot. Through virtual reality tracking of the pilot user’s arm and hand, expressive gestures and social contact interactions are recreated via the robot’s arm and hand, enabling a pilot user and a local user to engage in a tangible exchange. To assess the usability and effectiveness of the gesturing system, we present evaluations from both the local and pilot user perspectives.

Featured Image

Photo by Andy Kelly on Unsplash

Photo by Andy Kelly on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Results demonstrate that the robot with the arm and hand elicited a more positive social experience than the robot without the arm for local users but no significant difference in conditions for pilot users.