Towards Semi-Autonomous Avatars to Assist Clinicians in Home and Hospital Environments

Service robots are garnering increasing interest in the scientific community for their ability to interact with humans and assist them in daily activities. A subset of service robots, termed “avatar robots”, stands out for their capability to be remotely controlled by operators through various interfaces. An essential objective in this context is to develop user-friendly systems that empower users to interact with and manipulate the physical world remotely. In alignment with this trend, IIT-SoftBots and the University of Pisa have developed the Alter-Ego robot, a lightweight two-wheeled humanoid capable of autonomous and immersive teleoperation modes. Equipped with advanced variable stiffness motors, the robot minimizes the risk of causing discomfort or pain to users, making it suitable for a variety of human-robot interaction tasks, including assistive activities. For this reason, we envision a significant potential impact in the field of medical applications, including assistance to patients and clinical staff, enabling the possibility of active physical telepresence in both hospital and home environments. This paper summarizes the results of a study aimed at exploring the usability of the Alter-Ego robot among non-experts. Additionally, it outlines potential scenarios for assessing the robot's use in domestic and healthcare applications by presenting some preliminary scenario tests in both hospital and home environments.