Latest Invention: TELESAR V - Robot Avatar that Sends Sensations of Distant Environment to Its Operator in Real Time

A team of Japanese researchers from Keio University, led by Professor Susumu Tachi, has invented the TELESAR V Robot Avatar, an R/C robot that can perform various movements, transmit sight, hearing and touch senses to its operator via a series of sensors and a 3D display that an operator wears on their head.

It would be interesting to note that telexistence is a concept first advocated by Tachi over 2 decades ago. Its goal is to make it possible for people to interact with a distant environment in real time and in a very realistic way.

During the presentation of their invention, the operator of the humanoid machine wore a helmet fitted with a 3D display and headphones to allow the operator to receive video and audio signals of what the robot currently sees and hears.

TELESAR V also features a system able to capture and transmit touch sensations. Various sensors incorporated into the machine's hands record force vectors and temperature information so the operator could feel the temperature and form of an object.

The system is so accurate that it can even recognize uneven surfaces that size of a bump of a LEGO piece. "The robot's hands can't move as freely as a person's, but they do come very close, with 15 degrees of freedom," mentioned Masahiro Furukawa, Assistant Professor at Tachi Laboratory.

In the near future the robot could be used to allow doctors to interact with people in distant locations. Such application is called telemedicine.

Check out the video below for more information about the robot.

[via DigiINFO]