Human life is invaluable. When dangerous or life-threatening tasks need to be completed, robotic platforms could be ideal in replacing human operators. Such a task that we focus on in this work is the Explosive Ordnance Disposal. Robot telepresence has the potential to provide safety solutions, given that mobile robots have shown robust capabilities when operating in several environments. However, autonomy may be challenging and risky at this stage, compared to human operation. Teleoperation could be a compromise between full robot autonomy and human presence. In this paper, we present a relatively cheap solution for telepresence and robot teleoperation, to assist with Explosive Ordnance Disposal, using a legged manipulator (i.e., a legged quadruped robot, embedded with a manipulator and RGB-D sensing). We propose a novel system integration for the non-trivial problem of quadruped manipulator whole-body control. Our system is based on a wearable IMU-based motion capture system that is used for teleoperation and a VR headset for visual telepresence. We experimentally validate our method in real-world, for loco-manipulation tasks that require whole-body robot control and visual telepresence.

WIRE)--Airbus Ventures announces its latest investment in Telexistence, Inc., a leading innovator in remote-controlled robotics with artificial intelligence that has closed a $20M Series A-2 financing round led by a group company of Monoful Inc. and comprising additional funds from KDDI, Deepcore, UTokyo IPC, and multiple new investors. Telexistence has raised about $41 million to date, since the company's inception in 2017. "As we rethink and transform the basic meaning of'existence,' we are actively expanding our in-house engineering team, accelerating product development, and upscaling deployment to the company's growing customer base in offline retail and logistics," explains Jin Tomioka, Telexistence CEO and co-Founder. "This funding signals a new chapter, and we are excited to welcome new partners, still more grateful than ever for Airbus Ventures, our lead Series A investor in 2018, and their mentorship and dedication to our mission." Materializing a vision of a more connected humanity interacting and evolving across multiple spatial and temporal scales, Telexistence releases humans from physical constraints utilizing Telexistence technology, robotics, telecommunication, VR, haptics, and AI.

Japanese startups are getting ready to deploy a small army of remote-controlled robots in the workplace. Called avatar robots, the machines are still experimental and their initial objectives limited. But if everything goes as planned, they could soon be clerking at convenience stores, patrolling buildings as security guards, or even assisting astronauts in outer space. The technology has the potential to replace humans, helping solve labor shortages and providing relief to essential workers combating natural disasters. Convenience stores in Tokyo have already put prototypes of the robots to work stocking shelves with beverages, instant noodles and other goods.

In a quiet aisle of a small supermarket in Tokyo, a robot dutifully goes about its work. It looks like a well-integrated autonomous mechanical worker, but that is something of an illusion. This robot doesn't have a mind of its own. Several miles away, a human worker is controlling its every movement remotely and watching via a virtual reality (VR) headset that provides a robot's eye view. This is the work of Japanese firm Telexistence, whose Model-T robot is designed to allow people to do physical labour in supermarkets and other locations from the comfort of their own homes.

Japanese convenience stores are testing out robots to stock store shelves in hopes of combating the country's labor shortage and allowing human workers to socially distance during a pandemic. FamilyMart, Japan's second largest convenience store chain, has partnered with robotics company Telexistence on an android stock boy named Model-T, after Henry Ford's famous car. Rather than use AI, Model-T is connected to a human operator who manipulates the robot's movements remotely using virtual reality (VR). The seven-foot tall robot has a wide range of motion, necessary for lifting and moving products, with a lag time of only 50 milliseconds between operator and automaton. This week Model-T was rolled out at Lawson, another convenience store that is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi.

In August, a robot vaguely resembling a kangaroo will begin stacking sandwiches, drinks and ready meals on shelves at a Japanese convenience store in a test its maker, Telexistence, hopes will help trigger a wave of retail automation. Following that trial, store operator FamilyMart says it plans to use robot workers at 20 stores around Tokyo by 2022. At first, people will operate them remotely -- until the machines' artificial intelligence (AI) can learn to mimic human movements. Rival convenience store chain Lawson is deploying its first robot in September, according to Telexistence. "It advances the scope and scale of human existence," the robot maker's chief executive, Jin Tomioka, said as he explained how its technology lets people sense and experience places other than where they are.

Telexistence Inc is a Tokyo-based robotic startup that I stumbled upon that made me think about the future of retail. Telexistence unveiled its first mass production prototype for Model H. The premise is simple, the drone is dormant until a user logs on with a VR headset and starts moving it around. While the kit in the video is bulky (and I am not sure why that is the case) in the future it's likely to be as simple as logging into a social network. In a way, this is the future that Mark Zuckerburg wants and one I can see happen en mass if drones start to really take off.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. Skydio's R1 can now follow cars, while not crashing into other stuff, of course: Telexistence thinks that having a telepresence robot that's humanoid on the other end will make it more natural to interact with, I'm guessing. And they've done a reasonable job with the design: I have to wonder what kind of latency you get between Japan and Hawaii, though.