Design of a Telepresence Robot to Avoid Obstacles in IoT-Enabled Sustainable Healthcare Systems

In the Internet of Things (IoT) era, telepresence robots (TRs) are increasingly a part of healthcare, academia, and industry due to their enormous benefits. IoT provides a sensor-based environment in which robots receive more precise information about their surroundings. The researchers work day and night to reduce cost, duration, and complexity in all application areas. It provides tremendous benefits, such as sustainability, welfare improvement, cost-effectiveness, user-friendliness, and adaptability. However, it faces many challenges in making critical decisions during motion, which requires a long training period and intelligent motion planning. These include obstacle avoidance during movement, intelligent control in hazardous situations, and ensuring the right measurements. Following up on these issues requires a sophisticated control design and a secure communication link. This paper proposes a control design to normalize the integration process and offer an auto-MERLIN robot with cognitive and sustainable architecture. A control design is proposed through system identification and modeling of the robot. The robot control design was evaluated, and a prototype was prepared for testing in a hazardous environment. The robot was tested by considering various parameters: driving straight ahead, turning right, self-localizing, and receiving commands from a remote location. The maneuverability, controllability, and stability results show that the proposed design is well-developed and cost-efficient, with a fast response time. The experimental results show that the proposed method significantly minimizes the obstacle collisions. The results confirm the employability and sustainability of the proposed design and demonstrate auto-MERLIN's capabilities as a sustainable robot ready to be deployed in highly interactive scenarios.

Enhancing Immersive User Experience Quality of StudoBot Telepresence Robots with Reinforcement Learning

The pandemic situation (Covid 19) brought new challenges in the education sector while simultaneously presenting unique opportunities for technology enabled services. The use of Mobile Robotic Telepresence systems in educational sector is promising as it provides means to significantly enhance the involvement and benefits to stakeholders involved in such interactions. An immersive user interaction with such a system depends on many aspects which are both static and dynamic. We approach the dynamic aspect of such interactions recognizing that the video and audio aspects of such a system will require fine tuning and adaptation. Closely related is the aspect of maintaining the necessary quality of network connection. Considering each of these aspects a reinforcement learning mechanism is incorporated to improve the overall user experience with such a system. A working system is built and experiments performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach. Reward generation matrix, a crucial piece of data gathering from the environment, takes about 45 minutes, offline training time is less than a second, while the robot is able to cover the workspace in slightly less than a minute. The system is not limited to educational sector alone and provides a foundational framework to extend the concepts and principles to adjacent markets. © 2023 IEEE.

Telepresence Robots in Long-Term Care Settings in British Columbia During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Analyzing the Experiences of Residents and Family Members.

Telepresence robots are being increasingly used in long-term care (LTC) homes for virtual visits between families and residents. This study investigated the impacts and experiences of residents and their families using a telepresence robot (Double 3) for 4 to 12 months during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 51 participants were recruited through purposive sampling, including 9 residents, 15 family members, and 27 staff from 4 LTC homes in British Columbia, Canada. Conversational interviews were conducted with residents and family members. Focus groups and one-to-one interviews were held with frontline staff. Thematic analysis was performed, with five themes identified: (1) Stay connected, (2) Regain autonomy, (3) Relieve caregiver burden, (4) Environmental and technical issues, and (5) Scheduling concerns. In conclusion, telepresence robots helped maintain social connections between residents and families, despite the COVID-19 restrictions.

Telepresence Robot for Isolated Patients in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Effects of Socio-relationship and Telecommunication Device Types on Patients' Acceptance of Robots

Telecommunication devices can help mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus among the patients quarantined in hospitals. In contrast to the conventional telecommunication devices, a telepresence robot can deliver tangible communication cues from a remote sender to a receiver that vary according to level of interaction modalities. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, telecommunication interactants can be divided into two categories based on their socio-relationships. The types include those engaged in social-oriented relationships such as that between patients and families or acquaintances, and task-oriented relationships such as those between patients and doctors or nurses. We hypothesize that the types of telecommunication device used and socio-relationship would be factors affecting the COVID-19 patients' telecommunication experiences and acceptance of telepresence robots. We conducted a user study comparing three types of telecommunication devices namely floor-based robot versus desk-based robot versus tablet with the aforementioned two types of socio-relationships. The results indicated that the participants preferred telecommunication service in a social-oriented relationship to a task-oriented relationship. A mediation analysis revealed that social presence, competency, and familiarity mediates the effects of socio-relationship type on the satisfaction of the telecommunication service. Based on the socio-relationship type, different tendencies on the effect of telecommunication device types on service evaluation were observed. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Telepresence Robots and Controlling Techniques in Healthcare System

In this era of post-COVID-19, humans are psychologically restricted to interact less with other humans. According to the world health organization (WHO), there are many scenarios where human interactions cause severe multiplication of viruses from human to human and spread worldwide. Most healthcare systems shifted to isolation during the pandemic and a very restricted work environment. Investigations were done to overcome the remedy, and the researcher developed different techniques and recommended solutions. Telepresence robot was the solution achieved by all industries to continue their operations but with almost zero physical interaction with other humans. It played a vital role in this perspective to help humans to perform daily routine tasks. Healthcare workers can use telepresence robots to interact with patients who visit the healthcare center for initial diagnosis for better healthcare system performance without direct interaction. The presented paper aims to compare different telepresence robots and their different controlling techniques to perform the needful in the respective scenario of healthcare environments. This paper comprehensively analyzes and reviews the applications of presented techniques to control different telepresence robots. However, our feature-wise analysis also points to specific technical, appropriate, and ethical challenges that remain to be solved. The proposed investigation summarizes the need for further multifaceted research on the design and impact of a telepresence robot for healthcare centers, building on new perceptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023 Tech Science Press. All rights reserved.

Telepresence Robots and Controlling Techniques in Healthcare System

In this era of post-COVID-19, humans are psychologically restricted to interact less with other humans. According to the world health organization (WHO), there are many scenarios where human interactions cause severe multiplication of viruses from human to human and spread worldwide. Most healthcare systems shifted to isolation during the pandemic and a very restricted work environment. Investigations were done to overcome the remedy, and the researcher developed different techniques and recommended solutions. Telepresence robot was the solution achieved by all industries to continue their operations but with almost zero physical interaction with other humans. It played a vital role in this perspective to help humans to perform daily routine tasks. Healthcare workers can use telepresence robots to interact with patients who visit the healthcare center for initial diagnosis for better healthcare system performance without direct interaction. The presented paper aims to compare different telepresence robots and their different controlling techniques to perform the needful in the respective scenario of healthcare environments. This paper comprehensively analyzes and reviews the applications of presented techniques to control different telepresence robots. However, our feature-wise analysis also points to specific technical, appropriate, and ethical challenges that remain to be solved. The proposed investigation summarizes the need for further multifaceted research on the design and impact of a telepresence robot for healthcare centers, building on new perceptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023 Tech Science Press. All rights reserved.

ORAL PAPER PRESENTATION 3: PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH

The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the need to improve mental health services for elderly, people with mental health conditions or intellectual disabilities (WHO, 2021). The objective is to live a self-determined, au-tonomous life and to be empowered and integrated in society (WHO, 2021). In Germany, deinstitutionalisation of mental health care has been accompanied by the rise of counselling and care services that assist these target groups with household chores and other needs, but also provide services that enable social inclusion and participa-tion (DGPPN, 2018). For recipients of these services, a structured daily routine provides stability (Gold et al., 2018). Service providers should use empowering approaches that use and promote the resources of people with mental health conditions (clients) and encourage self-determined decision making (Gold et al., 2018;Schädle-Deininger, 2010). To what extent can new technologies, such as telepresence robots, support these tasks, e. g. in the field of communication and housekeeping activities (Isabet et al., 2022)? In the project ‘EmpowermentAssistant (Teilhabe-Assistenz)', the telepresence robot Temi (Fig. 1) is used in assisted living for people with mental health conditions and intellectual disabilities. For this purpose, Temi will be equipped with a software toolbox that promotes empow-erment, supports independence and strengthens digital literacy. Method Within the framework of an explorative participatory study design, the robotic use will be examined through mixed methods and triangulation (Döring & Bortz, 2016;von Unger, 2014). A requirement analysis was conducted, consisting of three focus groups with 8 pro-fessionals, 2 clients, and 2 stakeholders as well as one expert interview, which will be interpreted using qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2015). Subsequent project phases include iterative data collection in the form of field observations, qualitative interviews, and standardized survey instruments to obtain information on social interaction with the telepresence robot, technology acceptance, and usability. Results and Discussion Initial results of the requirement analysis show the relevance of structuring everyday life and the importance of strengthening these skills. The possibility to use the telepresence robot for this context is confirmed. Therefore, a toolbox with the appli-cations "Digital Participation", "Digital Assistance" and "Digital Care" will be developed. The robotic software will remind clients of appointments and household chores. One example is the ‘Happy Washday': Temi will encourage clients to use the washing machine and provides a step-by-step explanation. Tasks, e.g. of the weekly schedule, can be checked off and thus become visible and verifiable for the staff. Temi's telepresence feature will allow video conferencing between clients and professional staff. The staff can communicate, move and navigate Temi through the home, monitoring the situation via the robot. The next step is to test each software application in different pilot scenarios. © 2022,Gerontechnology.All Rights Reserved.

Piton: Investigating the Controllability of a Wearable Telexistence Robot.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted collaborative activities, travel, and physical contact, increasing the demand for real-time interactions with remote environments. However, the existing remote communication solutions provide limited interactions and do not convey a high sense of presence within a remote environment. Therefore, we propose a snake-shaped wearable telexistence robot, called Piton, that can be remotely used for a variety of collaborative applications. To the best of our knowledge, Piton is the first snake-shaped wearable telexistence robot. We explain the implementation of Piton, its control architecture, and discuss how Piton can be deployed in a variety of contexts. We implemented three control methods to control Piton: HM-using a head-mounted display (HMD), HH-using an HMD and hand-held tracker, and FM-using an HMD and a foot-mounted tracker. We conducted a user study to investigate the applicability of the proposed control methods for telexistence, focusing on body ownership (Alpha IVBO), mental and physical load (NASA-TLX), motion sickness (VRSQ), and a questionnaire to measure user impressions. The results show that both the HM and HH provide relevantly high levels of body ownership, had high perceived accuracy, and were highly favored, whereas the FM control method yielded the lowest body ownership effect and was least favored. We discuss the results and highlight the advantages and shortcomings of the control methods with respect to various potential application contexts. Based on our design and evaluation of Piton, we extracted a number of insights and future research directions to deepen our investigation and realization of wearable telexistence robots.

AI-Powered University: Design and Deployment of Robot Assistant for Smart Universities

This study presents four robot systems that utilize artificial intelligence techniques to assist students, teachers, and staff in the university. The goal of the assist robot systems is to reduce workload and enhance the effect in teaching and learning as well as improve the learning environment at university. The four robot systems including virtual assistant, telepresence, guide, and delivery robots were proposed and developed. In online learning, the virtual assistant robot supports students and teachers in learning and teaching by an interactive and informative learning environment and consequently maximizing learning outcomes. The telepresence robot allows students to follow the classroom at home or hospital in the case that students are unable to attend classes due to special reasons (Covid-19 pandemic, illness). The guide robot was developed as a physical robot which places or moves in the small range at the library, administrative building, restaurant, and residence to provide information such as book searching, freshman quiz, restaurant menu, events, and places. Finally, the delivery robot aims to deliver documents, books, and food/drink to students and teachers on the university campus in the motive of improving the quality of life and services. The motivation of this paper is highlighting the benefits of using robots in the development of smart-university. Experiments at Eastern International University showed that students are interested in the four robot systems and these robots enhance student engagement in learning and campus activities as well as significantly reduce the teacher’s workload. The virtual assistant, the telepresence, and the delivery robots gave great benefits in tackling the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic while the guide robot created exciting experience and productive outcomes for new students and visitors. © 2022 J. Adv. Inf. Technol.