There's a conference in your field of work halfway across the country. You'd really like to go, check out the talks and network with a few people. But the plane ticket will be $500, you'll need to pay for hotels for 3 days, as well as eating out since you won't be cooking. Plus your boss isn't so sure about giving you a week off.
But there's another option. The conference is giving you the option to log into a "telepresence robot" which has two way video/audio and can be driven around the conference. You can basically attend the conference from your laptop at a fixed rate of $X/hr.
Example robots:
http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/technology/technology/2014/05/140501_TECH_TelepresenceRobot_Prod.jpg.CROP.promovar-medium2.jpg
http://spectrum.ieee.org/image/1589146
What do you think, would this be a viable option for you to attend a conference? Why or why not? Are there any particular robot features you'd want?