“What is great about the systems is through Apple T.V., you can connect it to your existing room systems,” he says. “If we had it in one of our lecture halls, we could not only have the person coming through the small iPad that’s on the robot, but we could actually blow it [the image] up on to projector screens or T.Vs. It acts as your conferencing system as well as a virtual or telepresence device.”
The Apple T.V. system also functions off of equipment by Polycom.
“It’s hooked into the input source on the Polycom unit, and when you launch Apple T.V., it comes up on the iPad,” says Elaine Shuck, Director of Education for Polycom. “The camera-to-camera is on the location in Florida and connected to the location in China, but when you use the iPad to launch what you’re showcasing on your screen, it’s an iPad. It’s hooked through an input source in the back of our solution, and separate from the videoconferencing cameras that connect the Florida school to the China school.”
Challenges
Gomez says he’s faced two challenges with the telepresence robot solution:
1) Extensive mobility and network connection
While the solution can maneuver in most locations, it is unable to travel upstairs.
As a result, instructors have to take the elevator if they want to relocate it to another floor.
Gomez says taking the elevator can cause a fuzzy network connection.
“Because it relies on either a wireless connection or via a cell phone network like 4G, if we go into an elevator, we might lose signal,” he says. “But that’s expected.”
2) Juggling two classes and one robot
When Gomez teaches his Hospitality Information Technology class, he has to juggle his attention between the students sitting in front of him and engaging his students in China with the robot.
Gomez says initially, it was tricky and cumbersome trying to teach and maneuver the robot at the same time.
He also has a teaching assistant present in his Miami class to help everything run smoothly.
With more practice, Gomez says he is able to give attention to his physical class while easily manipulating the robot to visit multiple student groups in China.
“You definitely have to multi-task, [but] as time progresses, it’s really going to help,” he says. “You need to be a little tech-savvy and get some training on it. But once we break off into groups, or if I want to ask a question in China, I can jump on the robot and go up to students and say hey John, answer this question.”
Wheeling to the Future
Since the first telepresence robot was a success, Gomez says FIU wants to invest in five more solutions, and use them for events outside of the classroom.
“We can use them to bring guest speakers in instead of flying them out here,” he says. “The other use, which, we’re closer to doing than anybody else, is using it for ADA students. So if you have a student whose mobility is impaired, they can get on the robot and roll around campus and actually be physically involved with other students.”
Most importantly, Sara Broyles, Communications Lead at Double Robotics, says FIU’s robotics solution is helping distance learning students feel a sense of equality among real-time students.
“They were trying to bridge that gap between students that were attending elsewhere in the world and have more action in the class,” she says. “The feeling of equality is huge. The feeling of these remote students is that they’re there. With robotics, they can drive in and out of classrooms, hallways, and actually feel like they’re walking around on campus.”
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