Are You Me? Re-Embodiment Process for Telepresence Robots

Abstract

Accessibility in distance education activities represents a challenge that needs to be addressed with a view to social inclusion and collaboration between the stakeholders of the school system. Also, as a resilient response to the Covid-19 pandemic, today we are witnessing research and experimentation on the theme of connecting people at a distance through solutions and tools designed to facilitate the teaching/learning process and socialisation, to make the impact more human with advanced digital technologies for image transfer. In this direction, telepresence robotics demonstrates a discrete potential regarding pedagogical effectiveness and social inclusion. Still, it also needs to investigate in greater detail the requirements for acceptance and service management. This contribution presents the results of a workshop/laboratory with university students at the Politecnico di Torino to investigate the first requirements related to the physical and cognitive embodiment of the telepresence robot through an interdisciplinary co-designing experience.