Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Patrick Naughton is a leading researcher in the field of telepresence and human-robot interaction, with a focus on making remote robotic avatars intuitive and accessible for non-expert users. His major contributions center on the development of immersive teleoperation systems, most notably through the AVATRINA robot avatar, which leverages commodity hardware to deliver high-fidelity sensory feedback and control. Naughton’s work on the ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition—a landmark four-year challenge to create robotic avatars enabling operators to sense, communicate, and act remotely as if physically present—has been widely cited (over 30 citations) and highlights his role in advancing shared control frameworks. He has also pioneered structured action prediction models that learn task-relevant actions to assist teleoperators in open-world environments, reducing cognitive load while maintaining user agency. Naughton’s research is distinguished by its practical emphasis on deployable, low-cost systems, and his insights from the XPRIZE have shaped best practices for avatar design. His work bridges robotics, machine learning, and human factors, offering a roadmap for future telepresence applications in disaster response, healthcare, and remote collaboration.