Collaborative Robotics

Caterpillar needed a flexible platform for a new generation of connected human-machine interfaces across a wide variety of industrial environments. Examples include marine, petroleum pumping, generators, custom hydraulics, mining, and rail applications.

Remote operation of deployed teleoperated robots (Guardian™ S) to perform complex tasks and video mapping and monitoring in areas where human safety is at risk.

The ability to enrich remote live video by virtual information does not exist in standard teleconferencing systems yet, partly because transmitting real-time captured 3D information over network has some disadvantages. For example, bandwidth requirements of 3D information are much higher than normal video. Also, in order to generate an accurate 3D representation, the environment must be captured from several directions. Normally, users are accustomed to pointing a video camera so that it captures only those parts of the environment that the user wants to show to remote participants of the video conference.