Design of a Semi-Humanoid Telepresence Robot for Plant Disaster Response and Prevention

Abstract

We introduce the end-to-end design of WRSTelebot, a semi-humanoid telepresence robot platform for disaster response. Its software design focuses on enabling highfidelity immersive telepresence control of its manipulators and proactive multilateral control enabled by anomaly detection of the operator's physical state. The robot's key mechanical design features include a transformable mobile base that allows the robot to switch between two drive systems: caterpillar-track and differential drive, depending on the encountered terrain. The upper body is composed of a retractable dynamically balanced 20-DoF humanoid torso, that can fold entirely, allowing the robot to navigate through space-constrained environments. We evaluateits performance during off-site tests to show its usability.