Teleoperation: Making Difficult, Dangerous and Distant Jobs Easier and Safer With 0% Risk to Humans

Advanced Teleoperation and Telepresence

We’re on a mission to help save lives by taking humans out of harmful situations and allowing you to complete tasks and jobs without having to be there physically. You can control the robot Hand from a distance such as a dedicated control room and even from another continent! The robot Hand will mimic your movements and complete tasks so that you’re protected with 0% risk to your safety.

It’s crucial for jobs that are dull, dirty, difficult or dangerous for humans to do such as handling radioactive material in nuclear decommissioning and handling potent substances in the pharma industry. Our technology is unique (we own the relevant IP), and unrivalled (it’s a quantum leap from what existing telerobots can do today).

Advantages of Teleoperation:

Add a safety layer between the operator and the task
Avoid human contamination
Apply a tool for highly dexterous manipulation
Increase productivity, efficiency, and reliability
Optimise processes with advanced precision and accuracy
Reduce overall costs

Core Technologies Available:

Shadow’s Teleoperation System

Shadow’s very own Teleoperation System using a Polhemus or Cyber glove, no haptic feedback

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If haptic (touch feedback) and tactile sensing are not important to you, we provide a Teleoperation System without these features that still allow you to complete tasks at a safe distance. This system can integrate with one of two leading technologies in Hand Motion Tracking: a Polyphemus Based Tracker or a CyberGlove. Both technologies provide an intuitive way to control the Shadow Dexterous Hand – a key component in this system.

The Tactile Telerobot

The world’s first haptic telerobot hand, as tried by Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.

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If haptics and tactile sensing are important you, you’ll want the Tactile Telerobot. Born under the funding and facilitation of ANA Holdings, we collaborated with HaptX (for realistic haptic feedback glove) and SynTouch (for biomimetic tactile sensors) pairing it with our Shadow Dexterous Hand allowing you to send touch across the globe. Interested customers and applicants of the ANA Avatar XPRIZE programme can buy the full system or its components.

Both Systems Include:

A UR10 or UR5 robot arm from Universal Robots for extendable reach
VIVE technology worn on your wrist to track arm movements precisely
A choice between a uni-manual (one Hand) or bi-manual (two Hands, left and right) package

Struggling to make a choice? Don’t worry. We have also made it possible for you to upgrade from one system to the other, at any time (e.g. update your Uni-Manual to Bi-Manual or non-haptic to haptic).

How Does it Work?

1. Operators wearing the haptic or cyber glove can control the robot Hand at a safe distance in the comfort and safety of a control room even from another continent.

2. The robot Hand mimics your hand and arm movements, handling materials and completing tasks without you physically handling any of the contents.

3. If you’ve chosen the Tactile Telerobot, you have the added benefit of haptics to relay touch sensations so you can also feel what the robot Hand is touching in real-time.

Areas of use

Case Studies:

Running our teleoperation system on 5G, featured on Channel 4

Our cross-country touch transmission from California to London, using 5G wireless network, features on a Channel 4 TV Show: Kevin McCloud’s Rough Guide to the Future, (33.00-40:20). Watch a short 3-minute segment here.

People think that technology is pushing people further apart and actually, this [the Tactile Telerobot], is bringing us together – Jon Richardson, Presenter and Comedian

Amazon re:MARS 2019:

We exhibited the Tactile Telerobot at Amazon’s inaugural re:MARS conference 2019 at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, where Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos tried out our touch-sensitive teleoperation technology. You can read more about our participation here.

That is really impressive. The tactile feedback is really tremendous! – Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s Founder & CEO

WIRED Exclusive:

In an exclusive for WIRED magazine, we successfully trialled haptic feedback across the Atlantic, from California to London. Watch the demo here:

One of the greatest promises of advanced robotics: keeping humans out of dangerous situations – Matt Simon, WIRED

Whether you’re a researcher, competition entrant or a company, feel free to reach out. Live demos can be requested.

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