Telexistence Past, Present, and Future

Telexistence technology allows for highly realistic sensation of existence in remote places without actual travel. The concept was originally proposed by the author in 1980, and its feasibility has been demonstrated through the construction of alter-ego robot systems such as the TELExistence Surrogate Anthropomorphic Robot (TELESAR) and TELESAR V, which were developed under national large-scale projects on "Robots in Hazardous Environments" and "CREST Haptic Telexistence Project," respectively, as well as the HRP supercockpit biped robot system developed under the " Humanoid Robotics Project." Mutual telexistence systems, such as TELESAR II & IV, capable of generating the sensation of being in a remote place in local space using the combination of an alter-ego robot and retro-reflective projection technology (RPT) has been developed, and the feasibility of mutual telexistence has been demonstrated. In this paper, the past, present, and future of telexistence technology is discussed.