Life-like VR and Robot Teleoperation - Holotron Demo,

The Holotron: The first device ever for walking in VR with life-like force- and balance-feedback.

The Holotron is very likely the only feasible device (with several possible realisations) for life-like control of any humanoid avatar, including implanted brain-computer interfaces.

The full-body version will eventually become like the Holodeck and Beaming from Star Trek.

It can be used to remotely operate a humanoid robot as if it is your own body.

VR becomes like reality and remote locations are accessible instantly without travel.

The video demonstrates
low latency, bilateral force- and balance feedback for walking in VR,
feeling the momentum and mass movable objects,
walking over slipping blocks with the interplay of stiction and friction,
challenging operation even at low frame rates (50 fps) on a slow 2012 CPU,
robust control during sudden force and speed changes,
operation at 1/20 of earth gravity,
robust control even beyond the set strength limit (25%, 150 Nm,
visible when the avatar and user's pose are not synced anymore),
feasibility even with cheap, low-strength, low-stiffness materials for the exoskeleton (wood).

The current prototype only uses two motors for each leg, one for each knee and one for each hip joint. The exoskeleton is ready to include five motors for each leg.

The design is modular and reusable for the easy extension to the full body version with arm, hand and back exoskeletons:
actuators
electronics
software
firmware

Flexible changes possible, e.g.
swap actuators/motors,
more compact and lighter exoskeleton.

Acknowledgements:

Fabian Reese (enduring of and helping in so many trial and production runs, valuable discussions), Markus Geisler (designed and built the motion simulator), Oliver Paetsch (indispensable for making safety-critical components and assembly), Gereon Büscher (valuable discussions, helping in trial runs), Scott Frankel (designing safety critical electronics for next iteration).

Special thanks go out to Thomas and Sibylle Westenhoff who started supporting me, Marcel Reese, and the project in early 2010. Without their financial support, active help and valuable discussions this project might not have been realized at all.

Music: "You" by Sappheiros,    • ❰Progressive House❱ Sappheiros - You  , "Dash 8 - Paradise" (Sapheiros Remix), "The Sound of Rain" by Sappheiros, all with License Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)