5. Outlook

As the previous chapter illustrates in particular, teleoperation is perfectly suited to operations in hostile environments, where human intervention is not an option, but where automatic machines cannot take over the tasks to be performed. So it's only natural that nuclear plant operators should have been key players in the birth and development of teleoperation systems. So it's only natural that the most advanced, robust and sophisticated solutions should be found in the nuclear sector.

However, new needs have emerged. These needs are associated with new environments where humans cannot act themselves, but must intervene using all their dexterity and expertise. These elusive worlds are those of the infinitely small, arduous tasks, surgical interventions and virtual universes. For a variety of reasons, human beings are unable to perform tasks in such worlds without...