The iCub robot advanced teleoperation system enabled humans to visit remotely Venice staying 300 kilometers away; Alter Ego robot met and shook hands with TV stars, journalists and several people thanks to the operator that controlled it at distance.

The two robots, the two research teams at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) working on Avatar technologies, are now ready to compete for the 8 million dollars prize contest, ANA Avatar X Prize, in Los Angeles (USA) on 4-5 November. The international challenge sees 17 finals teams in total from 10 countries of the world, which will compete live and push the boundaries of telepresence technology. The IIT teams are the only ones representing Italy and 2 out of 5 teams coming from the European Union.