Robotic system for remote operation of equipment in infectious environments

A method for remote operation of human-controllable equipment, comprising:

• at least one of mounting a remotely operable robotic subsystem on said human-controllable equipment or arranging said remotely operable robotic subsystem adjacent to said human-controllable equipment, said human-controllable equipment comprising a user interface;
• and
• providing a remote controller that is configured to be operated by a human,
• wherein said remote controller emulates a representation of said user interface of said human-controllable equipment such that a human can provide commands using said representation,
• wherein said remotely operable robotic subsystem is configured to receive commands from said remote controller to thereby operate said human-controllable equipment,
• wherein said remotely operable robotic subsystem comprises an imaging system configured to be at least one of mounted on or arranged adjacent to said human-controllable equipment to be able to obtain images of controls of said human-controllable equipment,
• wherein said remotely operable robotic subsystem comprises an image processing system configured to communicate with both said imaging system and said remote controller to receive said images and provide information to said remote controller,
• wherein said remotely operable robotic subsystem comprises an end-effector for operating a local touch-screen display in response to corresponding actions by a human on said remote controller,
• wherein there exists an offset between a detected end-effector position of said end-effector on said images and an actual position where said end-effector touches said local touch-screen display,
• wherein said remotely operable robotic subsystem uses an offset map to correct for said offset when moving said end-effector.