HAVATAR-Robots

With the steady ageing of the world population, more people are confined to live in isolation at their homes. Also, health and environmental concerns are demanding people work remotely more often to limit the carbon footprint in travelling and reduce the risk of spread of viral and infectious diseases. In both cases, the contact with familiars, friends or coworkers rely on telecommunication solutions with low interaction possibilities and unsatisfactory social bonding. Such solutions lack social presence and spatial accessibility, as well as diminished body language and implicit communication cues. The HAVATAR project proposes to increase the level of autonomy and social presence of current systems by using recent robotics and artificial intelligence technologies. Further to the interaction, telepresence robots can play active roles in providing help and health assistance to quarantined people. Specific behaviors, actuators and sensors can play important roles in handling epidemic crises. Although focused on health applications, the technology developed in this project will have an impact in many other uses of telepresence robots that will improve the lives of the homebound: in education at distance, accessibility to cultural spaces and events, attendance to professional meetings and scientific conferences, among others.