US Patent 9079313 Natural human to robot remote control

The subject disclosure is directed towards controlling a robot based upon sensing a user's natural and intuitive movements and expressions. User movements and/or facial expressions are captured by an image and depth camera, resulting in skeletal data and/or image data that is used to control a robot's operation, e.g., in a real time, remote (e.g., over the Internet) telepresence session. Robot components that may be controlled include robot “expressions” (e.g., audiovisual data output by the robot), robot head movements, robot mobility drive operations (e.g., to propel and/or turn the robot), and robot manipulator operations, e.g., an arm-like mechanism and/or hand-like mechanism.