An Auto-Operated Telepresence System for the Nao Humanoid Robot

This paper presents the development process of an auto-operated telepresence system for the Nao humanoid robot with the main functionality of directing the robot autonomously to an operator-defined target location within a static workspace. The workspace is observed by an array of top-view cameras, which are used to localize the robot by means of a color-based marker detection technique. The system is accessible world-wide to the remote operator through any Internet-capable device via a web-based control interface. The web server responsible for coordinating the communication between system and operator is hosted on a cloud-based infrastructure online. The system was realized as a case study for the Agent Relation Charts (ARCs), a new model driven design methodology for multi-agent cloud-based systems conceived at the Le2i laboratory in Le Creusot, France.