Telepresence Robot

Project Title

Telepresence Robot

Project Area of Specialization RoboticsProject Summary

Want to look at your children while you are in the office, want to monitor or inspect any area where human presence is risky or to have much interactive video conferencing? In any case, if your answer is yes, we are going to design a telepresence robot (live broadcasting moveable robot) for you. It can connect individuals with restricted mobility and increase social interaction, collaboration, and active participation.

Furthermore, you can also visualize a view of any environment. Using a mobile phone the instructions can be given to the robotic head (camera) to rotate at different angles. In addition, you can move the robot anywhere using the joystick or through a custom-built mobile app. Telepresence robots have enormous applications in office environments, military services, health care, independent living for distance learning.

Our project is an effort to improve the Telepresence robot industry, the robots currently present in the market have lag in communicating remotely or the awkwardness of the person conversing through or with the machine, some problems with telepresence robots include the lack of human intimacy, the robot cannot act on certain methods of communication,  We will try to develop a system that will minimize all those flaws and will be able to provide the best user experience.

Project Objectives

1. To develop a mobile application that would be able to control the movement of the robot and through which the transmission of the live video stream can take place.

2. To develop a well-designed robot that would be able to move around in any environment without facing any unbalanced force.

3. To create an interface between the mobile application and the robot, so that the robot can follow all the commands and the transmission of video can take place.

Project Implementation Method

The main idea behind telepresence robot is to provide virtual presence to the users who can’t be physically present in an environment. Users can use this robot for two main purposes, one is when he/she only wants to observe  the environment and second is when he/she wants to communicate or interact with other people. Users can control the  movement of the robotic head via mobile sensors (movement of the mobile, controls the movement of the robotic head) or navigation buttons in the app.

There are 5 main components of our project. 

1. Backend server.

In the very first component, we will design our backend and database server through which wireless communication will be achieved between frontend application and the robot. 

Data such as mobile sensor readings, signals of movement of robot from mobile, video chat info, will be stored in the database and the microcontroller will then communicate with the backend server and read data from the database and perform the task according to the data. In the end we will deploy our backend server by which we will be able to make connections remotely from anywhere.

2. Mobile application.

In this component, we will design a frontend application. which will be used to perform the following things.

• User authentication 

• Mobile's sensors reading (accelerometer)

• Manual controls by buttons for the movement of the robot (forward, backward, left, right) and 360-degree rotation of robotic head

• Video Streaming API for observing the environment or video conference with another person. 

• Backend API calls to store, restore or update the data.

3. Connection of  microcontroller with backend server.

After creating mobile app and backend server, our next component will be the connection of the microcontroller with the backend server. After this stage,  we will successfully establish communication between mobile application, backend server and microcontroller.  Now we can control motors (connected with microcontroller) through our mobile application. Mobile application send data to the backend and the microcontroller will then read that data and perform the task according to the data passed by the user.

4. Robot chassis(body).

Now all connections have been completed and tested. We will then design and create the chassis (body) of the robot. We will design a rover type body of our robot which has wheels for movement and a robotic head, which contains a mobile camera for video streaming. Two servo motors are used to rotate robotic head in 2 dimensions (360-degree rotation on x-z axis and 180 degree rotation on y-z axis). The height of the robotic head will also be adjusted through mobile application.

5. Installation and interfacing of microcontroller with robot chassis

After creating the body of the robot, the final component is to install and interface the microcontroller and all the motors in the body of the robot. Now everything is done and we can test all the features and connections of our telepresence robot.

Benefits of the Project

Since a telepresence robot is a video conferencing robot so it is eligible to provide assistance in scenarios where physical presence is required to determine/evaluate/participate within the environment but is not possible for users to be physically present due to financial/ medical or opportunity issues. Some of the scopes may be discussed below:

1. Telepresence robot may provide physical presence to the teachers that are unable to attend in person to allow students to feel more connected to the teacher and peers.

2. They may facilitate students, who are unable to attend their classes due to any issue (e.g suffering from injury or unavailability in the city etc), yet be able to attend school and move around among peers.

3. Telepresence robot may provide even more robust technology to help surgeons more effectively advise their peers during an operation, physicians to more conveniently perform their rounds or monitor patients.

4. In the military, telepresence robot can be sent for monitoring instead of a soldier. In this way, only the robot gets damaged and no life is lost even if there is an unexpected attack. 

5. This robot can be used for surveillance in the house where the owner wants to keep an eye on his home.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Our final Deliverable of the project consist of two parts, one is the software part and second is the hardware part.

1. SOFTWARE PART:

Software part is based on the backend and mobile application, developed using React Native platform which is a very powerfull tool for building application for both Andriod and IOS. Backend server developed using Node.js and for database, we are using Mongodb Atlas. Mobile application has two main features.

   a. Video Callling:

For adding video calling feature, we are using Agora React Native. It is a very popular and powerful tool for adding live video calling feature in mobile applications. Call logs of each call will be saved in database and users can view there logs in mobile application.

   b. Realtime Data Transfer:

For realtime data transfer, we are using ABLY. It is a SDK suit of APIs for transfer data in realtime from application to application. We are using this feature because if your wants to move robot from his/her mobile applicatoin so, robot should start moving immediately after user presses the button. If user presses forward button and robot start moving after some delay then this will not be a good experience for user to navigate the robot. So, commands should be tranfer from user to robot within no time for better experience. Here, commands are of two types. One is for movement of robot (forward, backward, left and right) and the other is for rotation of robotic head (up, down, left and right).

2. HARDWARW PART:

Hardware consist of a 4 wheeler robot and a robotic head on which mobile phone will be mounted. Four DC motors are used for the movement of the robot and two servo motors are used for the rotation of robotic head in 2-dimension. Bluetooth module will be used for communicate with mobile application. Mobile application send data to robot using bluetooth medium for perfoming task. Arduino is used to operate all motors and sensors in robot. For operating motors, a motor driver shield is used. User can also control the robot via joystick. Two joystikcs are used, one is for movement of the robot and second is for the rotation of robotic head. 

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry TelecommunicationOther Industries IT Core Technology RoboticsOther TechnologiesSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for People, Industry, Innovation and InfrastructureRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	15100
Arduino uno	Equipment	2	1300	2600
Bluetooth module	Equipment	2	400	800
Robot chassis (Wheels, Body, Wires)	Equipment	1	5000	5000
Joysticks	Equipment	2	300	600
DC Motors	Equipment	5	300	1500
Servo Motors	Equipment	2	800	1600
Motor drivers	Equipment	1	400	400
Batteries for robot	Equipment	1	1000	1000
Ultra Sonic Sensors	Equipment	3	200	600
Printing Documents	Miscellaneous	1	1000	1000