Bobak Farzin

Papers

Total Citations

113

H-Index

About

Bobak Farzin is a pioneer in the field of Internet-based telerobotics, a research area that explores how humans can remotely control physical machines over the web. His most influential work, "Collaborative teleoperation via the Internet" (2002), which has earned 99 citations, introduced a groundbreaking system enabling distributed users to simultaneously teleoperate an industrial robot arm. By aggregating mouse motion vectors from up to three users into a single control stream, Farzin demonstrated how collective human input could guide a physical robot in real time—a foundational concept for modern crowdsourced robotics and remote collaboration. His earlier projects, including "The Mercury Project" (2001) and "A Minimalist Telerobotic Installation on the Internet" (1998), served as crucial feasibility studies, proving that simple, reliable, and relocatable telerobotic systems could be built using basic web technologies. The minimalist lightbox system, accessible via any graphical browser, showcased how even modest hardware—motors and light switches—could create meaningful interactivity online. Farzin’s work laid the groundwork for today’s telepresence and collaborative robotics, inspiring researchers to rethink how the Internet can bridge physical distance through shared control of machines.