Implementing a telepresence robot in an industrial environment

Working remotely for long periods of time directly impacts the employees' productivity, engagement, and motivation due to isolation and the lack of informal and spontaneous communication with colleagues within the work environment. Exploiting the best of face-to-face meetings and remote work is, without a doubt, needed. An alternative is the broader usage of telepresence robots (TPR). A TPR is a video conference system with remote control movement capabilities. The TPR driver (e.g., at home) can move independently and interact with people in a different location (e.g., at the office). The freedom of movement and the independent point of view given by the TPR are features that cannot be achieved with a regular video call. The communication is perceived as more natural due to the driver's physical presence via the TPR. For several years TPRs have been used to promote social interaction in office, academic, and medical environments, but it has not been implemented in an industrial context. Until this date, there is no known formal research for TPRs applications in industrial environments. This opens new research and potential application fields that need to be explored further. The TPR can be applied as a hands-free remote assistance tool and expand a practical implementation of telepresence. The benefits of a TPR for remote assistance in a production environment, the positive effect on discussion and exchange of information, the importance of being physically pre-sent versus telepresence (physical robot, digital person) will be examined later on. The presentation provides an overview of a series of preliminary tests and interviews with technical users and industry experts to determine suitable implementation scenarios and requirements for the TPR in an industrial environment. An initial set of requirements and four possible application scenarios will be presented.