Vacation in the Metaverse, who wants it? This is possible in the near future. A new Avatar robot made in Italy turns that fantasy into reality and pushes the boundaries of virtual reality. We have added the video of the robot at the end of our article.
Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genova, Italy invented this robot. The idea is that this robot will be sent to a real place to feel, hear, see and experience, rather than a human. Meanwhile, the user stays safe at home.
First Test Performed
Researchers recently tested the robot in a demonstration with a human operator in Genoa. The iCub robot was sent 300 km away to visit the International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale, and the operator controlled it from this distance. Communication was achieved with a simple fiber optic connection.
People in Genoa felt everything the robot did. The feedback system worked visually, auditorily and tactilely. A system with all these features has been tested for the first time using a legged humanoid robot for long-distance tourism. The human operator can feel, see and experience everything the robot does.
Robot can be of great use to us
Although this system is a prototype, it offers great potential to use the new form of augmented reality. Various scenarios can be considered, such as disaster relief, where the robot enters an unstable building to save a human or as a surgeon can operate on a patient remotely.
If this idea is developed, it could form a very important building block in human research about the universe. We can send robots into space without putting humans at risk.