idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Nachrichten, Termine, Experten

Grafik: idw-Logo
Science Video Project
idw-Abo

idw-News App:

AppStore

Google Play Store



Instanz:
Teilen: 
21.10.2021 16:21

NimbRo team from University of Bonn wins ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition

Johannes Seiler Dezernat 8 - Hochschulkommunikation
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

A leap into the future: the goal of the ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition is to develop robotic systems that can transmit a human's senses, actions and presence to a remote location in real time. Through these avatars they can perform a variety of handling tasks and can interact with humans – from audio and video transmission to direct physical contact. Team NimbRo from the University of Bonn has now qualified for the finals in Miami (USA) and is to receive 100,000 US dollars. The prize purse for the finals is eight million US dollars.

38 teams from 16 countries had qualified for the semifinals. Among them was NimbRo from the University of Bonn, which took first place with 99 out of 100 points. "I am proud of my team, which developed an avatar system well suited for the complex competition tasks and made it fit to the point," said Prof. Dr. Sven Behnke, head of the Institute for Computer Science VI – Intelligent Systems and Robotics at the University of Bonn, after the semifinals. The finals are scheduled to take place next year in the USA. The 100,000 US dollars in prize money that NimbRo will receive for qualifying will be used to prepare for the finals. In the final round, a further eight million U.S. dollars will then be distributed among the top three teams.

The Bonn-based team NimbRo has been developing the Avatar system, which consists of an operator station and a mobile avatar robot, for two years. The avatar has a human-like upper body with two arms and five-finger hands. Attached to the head is a wide-angle stereo camera, a stereo microphone, and a display on which the operator's face is animated. The remote scene is visualized to the operator through a 3D head-mounted display, with the operator's head movements captured and transferred to the avatar head. This allows the operator to look around freely, see past obstacles, and view objects from different angles.

Exoskeletons mediate the hand movements

The three-dimensional perception of the scene is created in the operator's head by the different viewing angles and camera movements. Stereo audio also contributes to immersion. The operator feels the interaction forces of the avatar hands via force-torque sensors in the wrist. Robotic arms sense the operator's hand movements and relay them to the avatar arms. Hand exoskeletons mediate the finger movements. Gripping forces are sensed by finger motor currents and transmitted to the operator's fingers. The avatar's base drive can be controlled by a foot controller, with cameras creating a bird’s eye all-around view for orientation. The head-mounted display is equipped with three cameras that capture the operator's eye movements and facial expressions for facial animation.

In the run-up to the semifinals, the Bonn team used its avatar system to perform numerous tasks in everyday environments. These included, for example, making coffee, playing chess, but also measuring blood pressure, temperature and oxygen saturation like a nurse. Like a gentleman, the avatar helped a person in need of assistance into a jacket. In the competitive tasks in Miami, the operator played jigsaw puzzles together with a test person through the avatar system, shone at the celebration of a business deal and explored an object with his senses. The system was not operated by the development team, but by members of the international jury. Therefore, intuitive operation was one of the requirements. The Bonn system worked perfectly in the competition and impressed the jury members.

That such avatars have a practical significance became clear not least by the contact restrictions of the Corona pandemic. With such systems, people can overcome distances and be present in another location, for example, when working in dangerous or inaccessible environments, when supporting emergency forces to cope with disasters, or in space. "Avatar systems have the potential to overcome spatial separation between people and, through mass production – and the associated reduction in costs – may be as widespread in a few years as video conferencing systems are today," says Prof. Behnke.

Video of competition run by Team NimbRo from the University of Bonn: https://youtu.be/UA7vpQO5oZQ

Information about the avatar system: https://www.ais.uni-bonn.de/nimbro/AVATAR

Information about the competition: https://www.xprize.org/prizes/avatar


Wissenschaftliche Ansprechpartner:

Prof. Dr. Sven Behnke
University of Bonn
Institute of Computer Science VI - Intelligent Systems and Robotics
Tel. 0228 / 73 4116
E-mail: behnke@cs.uni-bonn.de


Bilder

Team NimbRo of the University of Bonn at the ANA Avatar XPRIZE semifinals in Miami (USA).
Team NimbRo of the University of Bonn at the ANA Avatar XPRIZE semifinals in Miami (USA).

Photo: Universität Bonn/Autonome Intelligente Systeme

Jury member in the operator station of the NimbRo Avatar system.
Jury member in the operator station of the NimbRo Avatar system.

Photo: Universität Bonn/Autonome Intelligente Systeme


Anhang
attachment icon Jury member exploring a vase through the NimbRo Avatar system.

Ergänzung vom 26.10.2021

The corrected version of the press release can be found at: https://idw-online.de/en/news778213


Merkmale dieser Pressemitteilung:
Journalisten, jedermann
Informationstechnik
überregional
Forschungsergebnisse, Wettbewerbe / Auszeichnungen
Englisch


 

Team NimbRo of the University of Bonn at the ANA Avatar XPRIZE semifinals in Miami (USA).


Zum Download

x

Jury member in the operator station of the NimbRo Avatar system.


Zum Download

x

Hilfe

Die Suche / Erweiterte Suche im idw-Archiv
Verknüpfungen

Sie können Suchbegriffe mit und, oder und / oder nicht verknüpfen, z. B. Philo nicht logie.

Klammern

Verknüpfungen können Sie mit Klammern voneinander trennen, z. B. (Philo nicht logie) oder (Psycho und logie).

Wortgruppen

Zusammenhängende Worte werden als Wortgruppe gesucht, wenn Sie sie in Anführungsstriche setzen, z. B. „Bundesrepublik Deutschland“.

Auswahlkriterien

Die Erweiterte Suche können Sie auch nutzen, ohne Suchbegriffe einzugeben. Sie orientiert sich dann an den Kriterien, die Sie ausgewählt haben (z. B. nach dem Land oder dem Sachgebiet).

Haben Sie in einer Kategorie kein Kriterium ausgewählt, wird die gesamte Kategorie durchsucht (z.B. alle Sachgebiete oder alle Länder).