TERESA: Socially Intelligent Robot as Window to the World

Abstract

The column aims to describe the characteristics of current cyberpsychology research in Europe. In particular, CyberEurope aims at describing the leading research groups and projects running on the other side of the Ocean.

T he European funded TERESA (TElepresence REinforcement-learning Social Agent; http://teresaproject.eu/) project team has a vision: to develop a telepresence robot of unprecedented social intelligence, thereby helping to pave the way for the deployment of robots in settings such as homes, schools, and hospitals that require substantial human interaction. In telepresence systems, a human controller remotely interacts with people by guiding a remotely located robot, allowing the controller to be more physically present than with standard teleconferencing.

TERESA is built upon the Giraff telepresence device, which consists of a video screen attached to a base with wheels. The device can be controlled via a computer by a user in a remote location, whose face appears on the device's video screen. It has a camera, a microphone, and a speaker to enable video conferencing

The robot enables elderly people and others with mobility issues to continue to interact socially with others, without ever having to leave their room. Loneliness and isolation are major problems faced by many older or disabled people, but the TERESA robot provides an imaginative and revolutionary solution.

Appropriate Behavior

The researchers have developed methods that enable the robots to perform social functions automatically, so that the human controller never needs to make decisions about how the robot should move around or what postures it should adopt.

TERESA robots are able to navigate semi-autonomously, maintaining face-to-face contact during conversations, and displaying appropriate body-pose behavior—in a similar way to human beings. Algorithms that can interpret social behavior are able to detect facial emotions such as the intensity of a smile, for example, and respond accordingly.

So thanks to the robot's social intelligence, the human controller is free to focus on interactions with other people, instead of worrying about manually navigating the robot or adjusting its position and orientation.

The telepresence robot was originally developed in the EU-funded Giraffplus project, but TERESA is continuing the work. The project is a cooperation between the University of Amsterdam, the University of Twente, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Imperial College London, MADoPA, and the University of Oxford (coordinator). It received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.

Stephen Von Rump, former CEO for Giraff Technologies said:

Telepresence robots have found an important application in telehealth and telecare, particularly in helping elderly live longer at home in a safe and dignified way. Experience has shown, though, that what are natural human gestures and behaviors in face-to-face encounters are not so natural when navigating a robot, and this limitation of the current technology has proven a drawback in practical deployments. The ambitions of the TERESA project will significantly expand the breadth of use cases for telepresence in remote care, saving money and improving quality of life.