Augmented robotic telepresence (ART): A prototype for enhancing remote interaction and participation

Mobile robotic telepresence (MRP) allows remote users’ access and mobility in a range of local environments. MRP devices have been adopted in societally significant domains such as workplaces, museums, commerce, education, and healthcare, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic to provide accessibility to these spaces when physical attendance was precluded. Although telepresence robots have autonomous systems features such as collision avoidance, they do not typically allow for physical manipulation of the environment, so they have been found to engender limited trustworthiness and have yet to achieve widespread adoption. This work presents a prototype exploring the potential of Augmented Robotic Telepresence (ART) to improve on inclusion, accessibility, and independence provided to remote users of MRP, broadening the space for interaction and participation, by augmenting affordances in the local environment via techniques such as Augmented Reality (AR), Internet of Things (IoT), and remote actuation. Herein we describe the ART prototype developed thus far, which is built on top of a commercial MRP robot, the Double 3 by Double Robotics; we elaborate on the ART prototype design, its implementation, and current capabilities. Lastly, we describe our research plans, including design workshops with museum stakeholders, and point towards directions for future work