Robust Immersive Telepresence and Mobile Telemanipulation: NimbRo wins ANA Avatar XPRIZE Finals

Understand

Robotic avatar systems promise to bridge distances and reduce the need for travel.

• We present the updated NimbRo avatar system, winner of the $5M grand prize at the international ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition, which required participants to build intuitive and immersive robotic telepresence systems that could be operated by briefly trained operators.
• We describe key improvements for the finals, compared to the system used in the semifinals: To operate without a power- and communications tether, we integrated a battery and a robust redundant wireless communication system.
• Video and audio data are compressed using low-latency HEVC and Opus codecs.