Designing Telepresence Robot Systems for Use by People with Special Needs

With the recent emergence of several new telepresence robot platforms, companies are investigating these technologies for ad-hoc conversations beyond the conference room. This technology has the potential to increase cohesion for people who work in a remote location away from their team. We hypothesize that seniors and people with disabilities may find similar benefits while remaining connected with their remote family and friends. We discuss our design of a telepresence robot system for use by this target population. We describe an upcoming pilot study in which people with special needs will operate the telepresence robot at their families’ homes and discuss the potential of these robots for telecommuting.