Telepresence systems allow a human operator to explore and manipulate a remote environment. Thereby, he commands a robotic teleoperator (TO) over a communication channel (COM) through a human sytem interface (HSI). The goal is to extend humans cognitive capabilities to a remote environment which is impenetrable by distance, scaling, or living conditions. Examples are space teleoperation, micromanipulation, or working in contaminated areas.

Improving the operator's experience and enabling him to perform a given task as in reality are the abstract goals of telepresence research. Therefore, multimodal information has to be fed back consistently to the human operator. Research topics for telepresence cover a broad horizon from theoretical control issues over psychophysical analyses to haptic interaction with human beings.