Organizers

• Sven Behnke, University of Bonn, Germany
• Serena Ivaldi, INRIA Nancy Grand-Est and LORIA, France
• Kris Hauser, University of Illinois, USA

Description

The ANA Avatar XPRIZE was an international, $10 million competition to build a telerobotic “avatar” system that allows human operators to transport their senses, actions, and presence across long distances. Potential applications of avatars are diverse and include telecommuting, emergency response, service, healthcare, space, and tourism sectors.
Telepresence through avatars is a relevant and topical area in robotics research because avatars represent a next generation of telecommuting devices that enable workers to not only communicate through audio and video, but also navigate remotely and manipulate objects in the distant environment. The process of developing a robotic avatar touches on many areas of robotics research, including telerobotics, haptics, tactile sensing, robot hands, VR/AR, and human robot-interaction.
In November 2022, 17 teams from ten countries competed in the ANA Avatar XPRIZE Finals. The workshop is an opportune time for XPRIZE teams, observers, and researchers in related areas to discuss and reflect on their perspectives on the current state of avatar technology, as well as future research challenges in the areas of telerobotics, haptics, VR/AR, and human-robot interaction. The program will consist of invited presentations, contributed talks and demos, and a panel discussion.

Schedule

9:00 –	Welcome and introduction (organizers)
9:10 –	Invited presentation by Fumihiro Kato, Waseda University, Japan: Telexistence Avatar Robot TELESAR VI and its Application to Telemedicine
9:35 –	Invited presentation by David Locke, Senior Program Director, ANA Avatar XPRIZE, USA: The ANA Avatar XPRIZE and the Push for an Avatar Future
10:00 –	Contributed presentations (5 minutes each) Patrick Naughton, James Seungbum Nam, Joao M. C. Marques, Jing-Chen Peng, Yifan Zhu, Qianxi Kong, and Kris Hauser: Pan-Tilt-Roll Televisualization With Adjustable Baseline Stereo Joao M. C. Marques, Jing-Chen Peng, Patrick Naughton, Yifan Zhu, James S. Nam, and Kris Hauser: Commodity Telepresence with Team AVATRINA’s Nursebot in the ANA Avatar XPRIZE Finals Nitish Sharma, Bartosz Meglicki, and Chang Liu: Intuitive Virtual Reality Human-Robot Interface with Volumetric Tele-presence, Visual Haptics and Audio Quentin Rouxel, Ruoshi Wen, Zhibin Li, Carlo Tiseo, Jean-Baptiste Mouret, and Serena Ivaldi: Feasibility Retargeting for Multi-contact Teleoperation and Physical Interaction Rafael Cisneros Limon, Antonin Dallard, Mehdi Benallegue, Kenji Kaneko, Hiroshi Kaminaga, Pierre Gergondet, Arnaud Tanguy, Carole Fournier, Rohan Pratap Singh, Yang Chen, Sélim Chefchaouni-Moussaoui, Guillaume Lorthioir, Yukiko Osawa, Masato Tsuru, Leyuan Sun, Mitsuharu Morisawa, Guillaume Caron, Michio Ono, Koji Shirasaka, Shiryu Wada, Hiroshi Wada, Fumio Kanehiro, and Abderrahmane Kheddar: Enhancement of Team JANUS’ Cybernetic Avatar System for Exploration and Skill Transfer Carlotta Sartore, Riccardo Grieco, Connor Herron, Stefano Dafarra, Alexander Leonessa, and Daniele Pucci: iFeel Walking: Real Time Walking Transfer from Human to Humanoid Robot Avatar
10:30 –	Coffee break with poster session
11:10 –	Invited presentation by Max Schwarz and Sven Behnke, University of Bonn, Germany: The NimbRo Immersive Telepresence System Winning the ANA Avatar XPRIZE Finals
11:35 –	Invited presentation by Pierre Rouanet, Pollen Robotics, France: Simplicity, Adaptability, and Homogeneity: Designing Robots for Natural Interactions
12:00 –	Contributed presentations (5 minutes each) Grazia Zambella, Giorgio Grioli, Manuel Barbarossa, Andrea Cavaliere, Gianluca Lentini, Cristiano Petrocelli, Mattia Poggiani, Giovanni Rosato, Emanuele Sessa, Vinicio Tincani, Antonio Bicchi, and Manuel Giuseppe Catalano: Alter-Ego X: A Soft Humanoid Robot for the ANA Avatar Xprize Mayumi Mohan and Katherine J. Kuchenbecker: OCRA: An Optimization-based Customizable Retargeting Algorithm for Teleoperation Rushali Mohbe, Poornima J D, Srijan Dokania, Shashank Goyal, Sridatta Chatterjee, and Bharadwaj Amrutur: An Autonomous Mobile Robot based Tele-Presence System with Augmentation: A Pilot Trial of Virtual Museum Tour Ata Otaran and Ildar Farkhatdinov: A Seated Robotic Interface to Control Walking of Physical and Virtual Avatars Alona Kharchenko, Jürgen Lippl, and Rafael Hostettler: Embracing Acceptance: Hugging Robodies Improves Robot Acceptance by the General Population Jeanine van Bruggen, Christiaan Brekelmans, Robin Lieftink, Douwe Dresscher, and Jan van Erp: I-Botics Avatar System: Towards Robotic Embodiment
12:30 –	Lunch with poster session
13:30 –	Invited presentation by Peter Whitney and Taskin Padir, Northeastern University, USA: A Progress Report on Team Northeastern’s Avatar Technology
13:55 –	Invited presentation by Jeremy Fishel, Tangible Research / Sanctuary AI, USA: From High-Dexterity Tactile Telerobots to General-Purpose Robots with Human-Like Intelligence
14:20 –	Invited presentation by Daniel Leidner, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany: The Surface Avatar Experiment: A Glimpse Into the Future of Astronaut-Robot Collaboration for Planetary Infrastructure Maintenance
14:45 –	Invited presentation by Daniele Pucci, Italian Institute of Technology, Italy: iCub3 Avatar System
15:10 –	Contributed presentations (5 minutes each) Stephan Andreas Schwarz, Carl Gaebert, and Ulrike Thomas: 6D Dynamic Tool Compensation using Deep Neural Networks to improve Bilateral Telemanipulation Stefano Dafarra and Daniele Pucci: Gaze Teleoperation for the iCub3 Humanoid Robot Sungman Park, Junsoo Kim, Hojae Lee, Minwoong Jo, Dohoon Gong, Dawon Ju, Sihyeon Kim, Dami Won, and Joonbum Bae: Team UNIST at the $10M ANA Avatar XPRIZE: Core Technologies, Integration, and Evaluation Suhan Park, Junhyeok Cha, and Jaeheung Park: Operator-Avatar Texture Feedback Approach using Hand-eye Camera and Force Sensor Masaki Haruna, Masaki Ogino, Shigeaki Tagashira, Muenetaka Kashiwa, Susumu Morita, Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Kota Imai, Tiancheng Zuho, Masashi Makita, and Yasutake Takahashi: Avatar Technologies of Team LAST MILE Toward Mobile Smart Device Operation Service Rui Luo, Chunpeng Wang, Colin Keil, David Nyugen, Henry Mayne, Stephen Alt, Eric Schwarm, Evelyn Mendoza, Taskin Padir, and John Peter Whitney: Team Northeastern: Reliable Telepresence at the ANA XPRIZE Avatar Final Testing
15:40 –	Coffee break with poster session
16:20 –	Invited presentation by Oussama Khatib, Stanford University, USA: From Romeo & Juliet to OceanOneK Deep-Sea Robotic Exploration
16:45 –	Invited presentation by Akira Fukabori, Founder & CEO avatarin, Japan: Instantaneous Mobility for a Better World
17:10 –	Panel discussion (invited speakers, moderated by organizers)
18:00	Farewell

Location

The workshop took place in the Exhibition Centre London (ExCeL) in the ICC Capital Suite 2 as part of the 2023 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

Registration

Participants had to register through the 2023 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

Call for Contributions

We were soliciting contributed presentations and demonstrations on all aspects related to robotic avatars.
[Link to the call]

Contributors are encouraged to submit extended results to the special issue Robot Avatars for Telepresence and Social Interaction of the International Journal of Social Robotics. 

Next Workshop

The 3rd Workshop Toward Toward Robot Avatars will take place at IROS 2024.

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