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Analysis and Perspectives on the ANA Avatar XPRIZE Competition

Kris Hauser, Eleanor Watson, Joonbum Bae, Josh Bankston, Sven Behnke, Bill Borgia, Manuel G. Catalano, Stefano Dafarra, Jan B. F. van Erp, Thomas Ferris, Jeremy Fishel, Guy Hoffman, Serena Ivaldi, Fumio Kanehiro, Abderrahmane Kheddar, Gaelle Lannuzel, Jacqueline Ford Morie, Patrick Naughton, Steve NGuyen, Paul Oh, Taskin Padir, Jim Pippine, Jaeheung Park, Daniele Pucci, Jean Vaz, Peter Whitney, Peggy Wu, David Locke

TL;DR

The paper analyzes the ANA Avatar XPRIZE by detailing its organization, the avatar technologies deployed by finalists, and the judging framework. It demonstrates how immersive HMIs, high-fidelity sensing, and robust networking correlate with task success and operator presence, while also revealing the influence of competition design on outcomes. The study synthesizes qualitative lessons from judges and teams to propose guidance for future telepresence research, including standardization of evaluation, modular platform development, and broader modality integration. Collectively, the work highlights the competition’s impact on advancing telerobotics, while acknowledging limitations and avenues for enabling more general-purpose, socially capable avatar systems in real-world settings.

Abstract

The ANA Avatar XPRIZE was a four-year competition to develop a robotic "avatar" system to allow a human operator to sense, communicate, and act in a remote environment as though physically present. The competition featured a unique requirement that judges would operate the avatars after less than one hour of training on the human-machine interfaces, and avatar systems were judged on both objective and subjective scoring metrics. This paper presents a unified summary and analysis of the competition from technical, judging, and organizational perspectives. We study the use of telerobotics technologies and innovations pursued by the competing teams in their avatar systems, and correlate the use of these technologies with judges' task performance and subjective survey ratings. It also summarizes perspectives from team leads, judges, and organizers about the competition's execution and impact to inform the future development of telerobotics and telepresence.

Analysis and Perspectives on the ANA Avatar XPRIZE Competition

TL;DR

The paper analyzes the ANA Avatar XPRIZE by detailing its organization, the avatar technologies deployed by finalists, and the judging framework. It demonstrates how immersive HMIs, high-fidelity sensing, and robust networking correlate with task success and operator presence, while also revealing the influence of competition design on outcomes. The study synthesizes qualitative lessons from judges and teams to propose guidance for future telepresence research, including standardization of evaluation, modular platform development, and broader modality integration. Collectively, the work highlights the competition’s impact on advancing telerobotics, while acknowledging limitations and avenues for enabling more general-purpose, socially capable avatar systems in real-world settings.

Abstract

The ANA Avatar XPRIZE was a four-year competition to develop a robotic "avatar" system to allow a human operator to sense, communicate, and act in a remote environment as though physically present. The competition featured a unique requirement that judges would operate the avatars after less than one hour of training on the human-machine interfaces, and avatar systems were judged on both objective and subjective scoring metrics. This paper presents a unified summary and analysis of the competition from technical, judging, and organizational perspectives. We study the use of telerobotics technologies and innovations pursued by the competing teams in their avatar systems, and correlate the use of these technologies with judges' task performance and subjective survey ratings. It also summarizes perspectives from team leads, judges, and organizers about the competition's execution and impact to inform the future development of telerobotics and telepresence.
Paper Structure (55 sections, 16 figures, 6 tables)

This paper contains 55 sections, 16 figures, 6 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background
  3. Telepresence
  4. Robotics Competitions
  5. Organization of Competition
  6. Background
  7. Competition Phases
  8. Team Registration
  9. Team Qualification
  10. Semifinalist Selection
  11. Semifinalist Verification
  12. Semifinals Competition
  13. Testing Procedures
  14. Scoring Rubric
  15. Logistics and Outcomes
  16. ...and 40 more sections

Figures (16)

  • Figure 1: Finalist avatar robots posed in front of the ANA Avatar XPRIZE finals course.
  • Figure 2: Operator stations for the finalist teams, representing a variety of virtual reality, 3D motion controllers, and force feedback devices.
  • Figure 3: Timeline of the phases of the competition by which teams participated and were down-selected.
  • Figure 4: Schematic of the finals course as provided by XPRIZE.
  • Figure 5: An Operator judge controls the Team SNU avatar robot using a head-mounted display (HMD), force feedback arms, and haptic gloves during Finals.
  • ...and 11 more figures