Telerobotics
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Telerobotics is the area of robotics that is concerned with the control of robots from a distance, chiefly using wireless connections ( like WiFi and similar). It is a combination of two major subfields, teleoperation and telepresence.
Teleoperation
Teleoperation means "doing work at a distance", although by "work" we mean almost anything. What we mean by "distance" is also vague: it can refer to a physical distance, where the operator is separated from the robot by a large distance, but it can also refer to a change in scale, where for a example a surgeon may use micro-manipulator technology to conduct surgery on a microscopic level. Devices designed to allow the operator to control a robot at a distance is sometimes called telecheric robotics.
Telepresence
Telepresence means "feeling like you are somewhere else". Some people have a very technical interpretation of this, where they insist that you must have head-mounted displays in order to have telepresence. Other people have a task-specific meaning, where "presence" requires feeling that you are emotionally and socially connected with the remote world. It's all a little vague at this time.
External links
- NASA Telerobotics Program Plan (http://ranier.hq.nasa.gov/Telerobotics_page/FY96Plan/Chap3f.html).
- http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~guan/telelink.html
- Internet based telerobotics (http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/148450.html).