Indian Institute of Science Selects BeBop Sensors Forte Glove for Tele-Robotics Competition

BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 28, 2021 -- BeBop Sensors’ AR/VR Forte Glove has been selected by a prestigious technology consortium known as “Team Aham,” led by the Indian Institute of Science, as part of the $10M ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition. The team has collaborated to create “Asha,” an avatar robot for next-generation social tele-robotics.

The $10 million competition calls for teams to create a robotic avatar system that can transport human senses, actions, and presence to remote locations in real time. Teams are asked to integrate multiple emerging technologies in their robotic avatar system, allowing users to see, hear, and interact with remote environments through tele-robotics. Team Aham selected BeBop’s Forte Glove for its haptic capabilities that uses six actuators to provide users with realistic sensations when their avatar is interacting with surroundings.

The Software Development Kit (SDK) provided by BeBop also streamlined the integration process with the team’s other hardware.

“The glove supports a variety of platforms such a C++, Python, Unity and Unreal, and the design is very minimalistic yet useful. Placement of sensors and haptic actuators is very well thought out and gives good feedback. The Bluetooth dongle has good connectivity and driver installation is simple (almost instant on Windows), making it easy to use the gloves wirelessly. The gloves also require no change in code, making integration seamless and saving our team time,” said Raviteja Upadrashta Ph.D, Team Aham.

Raviteja also pointed out the granularity of control BeBop provides with its acoustic-based haptics, which allows the team to choose between a variety of sound files to change the haptic sensations.

“BeBop is excited to have our Forte Glove integrated into Team Aham’s ANA Avatar XPRIZE award entry,” said Jerry Kurtze, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing.

“These organizations are leaders in the AI and robotics space. By adding BeBop’s smart sensing technology, the team will continue to advance the way people interact with their environment through tele-robotics.”

About Indian Institute of Science

Team Aham is a consortium of four partners: Indian Institute of Science (IISc), a leading university in Bangalore, India; TCS Innovation Labs, a leading corporate research lab; Hanson Robotics, a leading developer of Humanoid Robots; and ARTPARK (AI & Robotics Technologies Park), a not-for-profit company that has been setup by IISc to promote translational research in artificial intelligence and robotics.

About XPRIZE

XPRIZE is a global future-positive movement of over 1M people and rising, delivering truly radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. XPRIZE inspires and empowers a global community of problem-solvers to positively impact our world by crowdsourcing solutions through large-scale competitions, tackling the world’s grandest challenges in exploration, environment and human equity. Active competitions include the $100 Million XPRIZE Carbon Removal with Elon Musk, $20 Million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, $15 Million XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion, $10 Million XPRIZE Rainforest, $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE, $5 Million IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, $5 Million XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling and $1 Million Digital Learning Challenge. Donate, sign up or join a team at xprize.org.

About BeBop Sensors

BeBop is a leader in providing state-of-the-art customizable intelligent sensing technologies for OEMs for existing and emerging markets for next generation human interactions, robotics, health and wellness, AR/VR solutions and more. These smart sensing solutions are changing the way people interact with their devices.

BeBop’s sensors comprehend force, location, size, weight, bend, twist, and presence across any size, resolution, and form. Our intelligent sensing technologies are revolutionizing human and device interaction by allowing integration into many form factors such as flat or curved surfaces, gaming/TV controls, earbuds, armrests, headrests, furniture, automobile controls, toys, helmets, exercise mats, insoles, robotic skin, and more.

BeBop has received numerous accolades, including the Red Herring Award, TIME Magazine Best Inventions Award, IDTechEx Wearable Award, Frost & Sullivan North American Technology Innovation Award, and Gartner Cool Vendor Award.

For more information, visit http://www.bebopsensors.com.

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