Low-Latency VR Telepresence for Remote Inspection in Fence-Free Collaborative Manufacturing

Abstract

Fence-free collaborative manufacturing lets workers and machines share space, but autonomous safety monitoring cannot handle every situation alone. When an anomaly is flagged - unauthorized access, ambiguous sensor data, or unexpected worker behavior - a human operator must visually assess the scene. Our open-source framework deploys a mobile inspection robot controlled through an immersive VR headset. The operator sees through the robot's cameras with low-latency head-coupled video, navigates to the scene, and assesses the situation remotely - closing the loop between autonomous detection and human decision-making.