TELESAR V: TELExistence Surrogate Anthropomorphic Robot
Charith Lasantha Fernando∗, Masahiro Furukawa, Tadatoshi Kurogi,
Kyo Hirota, Sho Kamuro, Katsunari Sato, Kouta Minamizawa, Susumu Tachi
Graduate School of Media Design, Keio University, Japan

Figure 1: (a) Glass ball pouring, (b) Playing Shogi (Japanese Chess), (c) Shuji (Japanese Calligraphy)

1

Introduction

Telexistence is fundamentally a concept named for the general technology that enables a human being to have a real-time sensation ofbeing at a place other than where he actually exist, and to interactwith the remote environment [Tachi et al. 1990]. We have achieved
human-like neck movements to visually interact with a remote object in 3 dimensional space through previous versions of TELESAR [Watanabe et al. 2007]. We introduce “TELESAR V” whichmaps a user’s spinal1 , neck, head and arm movements into a dexterous slave robot and allowing the operator to feel the robot’s bodyas his own body through visual, auditory, kinesthetic and fingertip
tactile [Sato et al. 2007] sensation. With TELESAR V, operator canperform teleoperations confidently with no prior practise.

2User Experience

We will demonstrate a complete Telexistence operation involving
head, body, arms and hands including transmission of haptic sensation. Attendee can dive into the slave robot by wearing the HMD
and gloves and look through robot’s eyes. Due to the kinesthetic
and tactile sensation, operator will feel that his head, body, arms
∗ e-mail: charith@kmd.keio.ac.jp

1 extension, flexion, lateral flexion, and axial rotation

Copyright is held by the author / owner(s).
SIGGRAPH 2012, Los Angeles, California, August 5 – 9, 2012.
ISBN 978-1-4503-1435-0/12/0008

Vision Based
Force Sensor

PeltierGel Layer +Thermochromic Ink
Wide-angle
CameraMotorsMASTER (LOCAL)

System Overview

As shown in Figure 2, TELESAR V consists of a Master(local) andSlave(remote) system. In slave side, a dexterous robot is developedwith 54 DOF similar to an ordinary human’s body structure, shape,size and joints. Apart from audio and video sensing using conventional methods, low frequency haptics are captured using a vision
based tactile sensor and low to mid frequency haptics were captured
using a omni-directional microphone based tactile sensor. In order
to track fast and human-like smooth movements, an ungroundedmotion capturing system is used in Master side. Robot’s joint spaceis updated real-time with dynamic tracking data. Finger bending is
captured upto 14 DOF on each hand using fiber-optic bend sensors.
We also designed a HD (1280×800 pixels) Head Mounted Display
to experience realistic wide angle first person view as seen fromthe Robot. Remote fingertip proprioceptive sensation is reproduced
using a combination of vertical and shearing stresses excreted bya motor driven belt mechanism [Minamizawa et al. 2008] while
tactile sensation is reproduced using a voice coil based vibration
actuator.

3Belt driven
Haptic Actuator

SLAVE (REMOTE)

Figure 2: System Overview
and fingers are bound to the robot during picking up and pouring
glass balls. As a result, they can perceive the slave robot as theirown body.

4 Acknowledgement
This project is supported by JST-CREST Haptic Media Project andcollaborated with Kyokko Electric co.,Ltd.

References
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