Design and development of an avatar control station (ACS) for the control of a remote robotic avatar

Abstract

In a globalized world, the demand to travel overseas for business meetings increases. However, not all have the luxury of time to travel around for meetings. Thus, video conferencing started to become popular. Through the development of technology, video conferencing has evolved and leaned towards telepresence, as a result, bringing about more research on it. This project is part of a group that establishes MAVEN, a Mobile Avatar for Virtual Engagement by NTU. Of which, the objective is to design and develop an interface for a human operator to control a remote robotic avatar. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) is one of the most important factors when it comes to operating MAVEN Therefore, it would be designed to control the various modules of the robotic system as well as the functionality for social interaction. With an up and running desktop application, a web-based GUI was developed with the familiar features and interface of the previous application. The web based GUI allows MAVEN to be controlled on any PC, tablet or mobile device anywhere in the world. The GUI will provide working video conferencing sessions, data transmission for various functions such as locomotive controls, location map, robot position, robot status, as well as incorporating other hardware such as joystick and haptic devices. In conclusion, an easily accessible GUI has been successfully implemented. The interaction to control MAVEN could be further improved as well as more functions to include.

In a globalized world, the demand to travel overseas for business meetings increases. However, not all have the luxury of time to travel around for meetings. Thus, video conferencing started to become popular. Through the development of technology, video conferencing has evolved and leaned towards telepresence, as a result, bringing about more research on it. This project is part of a group that establishes MAVEN, a Mobile Avatar for Virtual Engagement by NTU. Of which, the objective is to design and develop an interface for a human operator to control a remote robotic avatar. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) is one of the most important factors when it comes to operating MAVEN Therefore, it would be designed to control the various modules of the robotic system as well as the functionality for social interaction. With an up and running desktop application, a web-based GUI was developed with the familiar features and interface of the previous application. The web based GUI allows MAVEN to be controlled on any PC, tablet or mobile device anywhere in the world. The GUI will provide working video conferencing sessions, data transmission for various functions such as locomotive controls, location map, robot position, robot status, as well as incorporating other hardware such as joystick and haptic devices. In conclusion, an easily accessible GUI has been successfully implemented. The interaction to control MAVEN could be further improved as well as more functions to include.