Telepresence systems have the potential to assume an important role in on-orbit servicing scenarios. Compared to manned missions, these systems offer a safer and less expensive way to operate in outer space. One of the main goals of telepresence research is to determine whether immersive telepresence systems are able to achieve a level of efficiency which is equal to that of astronauts in tasks that require fine motor movement and dexterity. In addressing this question, it is of relevance that astronauts' fine-motor skills are restricted by a range of factors including weightlessness and space suits. In order to compare in future studies the efficiency of a telepresence system and suited astronauts in performing fine-motor tasks, a testbed was developed with typical on-orbit servicing tasks which were designed to guarantee maximum external validity. An experimental study showed that the testbed is a valid measure of fine-motor skills. Two follow-up studies examined the potentially debilitating influence of a range of factors on fine-motor performance in extravehicular activities, such as a restricted field of view, a destabilized body posture, restricted mobility, and reduced haptic feedback. The results of these studies offer a basis for comparisons between the performance of common extravehicular activities and telepresence systems on fine-motor tasks.

In contrast to automated production, human intelligence is deemed necessary for successful execution of assembly tasks that are difficult or expensive to automate in small and medium lots. However, human ability is hindered in some cases by physical barriers such as miniaturization or in contrast, very heavy components. Telepresence technology can be considered a solution for performing a wide variety of assembly tasks where human intelligence and haptic sense are needed. This work highlights several issues involved in deploying industrial telepresence systems to manipulate and assemble microparts as well as heavy objects. Two sets of experiments are conducted to investigate telepresence related aspects in an industrial setting. The first experiment evaluates the usefulness of haptic feedback for a human operator in a standard pick-and-place task. Three operation modes were considered: visual feedback, force feedback, and force assistance (realized as vibration). In the second experiment, two different guidance strategies for the teleoperator were tested. The comparison between a position and a velocity scheme in terms of task completion time and subjective preferences is presented.

Telepresence systems should be designed to assist the human operator as much as possible to fulfill his task. In order to support the user concerning the visual modality, a system was designed that presents virtual reality images combined together with camera images captured at the remote teleoperator environment. In this work, two experiments were conducted. In the first, it was shown that presenting a widened field of view to the human operator enhances the human performance and the feeling of telepresence. In the second, it was examined how the transition between video and virtual views has to be designed. Relevant criteria of this transition were chosen and the results show that the operator's rating of quality, feeling of telepresence, and situation awareness are positively affected by variations of the transition parameters. Furthermore, a trade-off between the rating of quality and the situation awareness was observed. A parameter selection scheme is presented which can serve as a design guideline for combining video and virtual views depending on the desired application.