TELESIM: A Modular and Plug-and-Play Framework for Robotic Arm Teleoperation using a Digital Twin

Teleoperating robotic arms can be a challenging task for non-experts, particularly when using complex control devices or interfaces. To address the limitations and challenges of existing teleoperation frameworks, such as cognitive strain, control complexity, robot compatibility, and user evaluation, we propose TELESIM, a modular and plug-and-play framework that enables direct teleoperation of any robotic arm using a digital twin as the interface between users and the robotic system. Due to TELESIM's modular design, it is possible to control the digital twin using any device that outputs a 3D pose, such as a virtual reality controller or a finger-mapping hardware controller. To evaluate the efficacy and user-friendliness of TELESIM, we conducted a user study with 37 participants. The study involved a simple pick-and-place task, which was performed using two different robots equipped with two different control modalities. Our experimental results show that most users were able to succeed by building at least a tower of 3 cubes in 10 minutes, with only 5 minutes of training beforehand, regardless of the control modality or robot used, demonstrating the usability and user-friendliness of TELESIM.