Reimagining the Design of Mobile Robotic Telepresence: Reflections from a Hybrid Design Workshop

Abstract

Mobile robotic telepresence systems have been around for more than a decade, promising to improve on traditional video conferencing by enabling remote movement, and more recently, providing autonomous features for navigation, yet their use in the real world remains limited and infrequent. We share reflections from running a hybrid design workshop on telepresence robotics (at an academic conference) focused on re-imagining the design and use of telepresence robots, where mobility, as the main affordance of these devices, could truly provide value. We describe our hybrid design workshop and reflect on challenges encountered and learning outcomes.