Integrated telepresence, virtual reality, and mobile communications - A project report

This paper describes an interdisciplinary two year project to research and develop an integrated immersive telepresence, virtual reality, and mobile communications system. The system incorporates subsystems such as mechatronic stereo and mono camera platforms, a remotely operated land vehicle, a cellular mobile phone system for video and control communications, home site equipment such as a head mounted display, and virtual reality software. As an application example the system is deployed for the planning, monitoring, and recording of actual against planned progress on construction sites. The planned progress is provided via the virtual reality software and this is compared with real world progress as displayed through the telepresence system. The paper explains the project objectives, progress to date including the system specification, the technology developed, the system integration, the results of initial trials, and future plans.