J-03

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A Novel Communication Architecture and Control System for TeleBot: A Multi-Modal Telepresence Robot for Disabled Officers

SEVUGARAJAN SUNDARAPANDIAN*, Acharya Institute of Technology JONG-HOON KIM, Florida International University SHADEH FERRIS-FRANCIS, Florida International University HUNTER MICHKO, Florida International University CHRISTOPHER CHARTERS, University of Florida JERRY MILLER, Florida International University NAGARAJAN PRABAKAR, Florida International University

 

 

Abstract: There is an incredible need to help disabled veterans and police officers to remotely perform patrolling and law enforcement duties. Currently a disabled officer is medically retired following a severe duty related injury, depriving the individual of a career and the force of an experienced officer in his/her prime. This result in billions of dollars of wasted talents and resources. As an ongoing effort at the Florida International University (FIU) Discovery Lab, researchers are designing, developing and testing a new telepresence robot designated as “TeleBot” to assess how it can be used to help disabled officers return to duty. More specifically, the work has been focused on the design and implementation of a smart telepresence robot with enhanced functionalities. This paper presents a detailed development and analysis of TeleBot and provides a field evaluation (demonstration/validation) of the current capabilities. The principal contribution of this paper comprises of robust communication architecture for efficient human interaction with the robot that almost resembles a law enforcement officer and capable of receiving commands that are issued by an actual disabled officer from a remote location. Two high definition cameras in the head assembly of TeleBot wirelessly transmit live video stream of the TeleBot’s visual field to the remote operator wearing a virtual reality based stereoscopic display. Additionally, a voice recognition system enables the TeleBot to greet people and accept voice based commands from the operator. The user-friendly software embedded on the system provides a seamless communication between the officer at a remote location and diverse population through TeleBot. The striking factor of this design is affordability in terms of cost.