We propose a passive bilateral teleoperation control law for a pair of n-degree-of-freedom (DOF) nonlinear robotic systems. The control law ensures energetic passivity of the closed-loop teleoperator with power scaling, coordinates motions of the master and slave robots, and installs useful task-specific dynamics for inertia scaling, motion guidance, and obstacle avoidance. Consequently, the closed-loop teleoperator behaves like a common passive mechanical tool. A key innovation is the passive decomposition, which decomposes the 2n-DOF nonlinear teleoperator dynamics into two robot-like systems without violating passivity: an n-DOF shape system representing the master-slave position coordination aspect, and an n-DOF locked system representing the dynamics of the coordinated teleoperator. The master-slave position coordination is then achieved by regulating the shape system, while programmable apparent inertia of the coordinated teleoperator is achieved by scaling the inertia of the locked system. To achieve this perfect coordination and inertia scaling, the proposed control law measures and compensates for environment and human forcing. Passive velocity field control and artificial potential field control are used to implement guidance and obstacle avoidance for the coordinated teleoperator. The designed control is also implemented in an intrinsically passive negative semidefinite structure to ensure energetic passivity of the closed-loop teleoperator, even in the presence of parametric model uncertainties and inaccurate force sensing. Experiments are performed to validate the properties of the proposed control framework.

Presents a passive bilateral feedforward control scheme for linear dynamically similar (LDS) teleoperated manipulators with kinematic scaling and power scaling. The proposed control law renders the teleoperator as a passive rigid mechanical tool with programmable apparent inertia to the human operator and the work environment by utilizing bilateral force feedforward and kinematic feedback control. The passivity of the closed-loop system is robust to force measurement inaccuracies and model uncertainty. Thus, interaction stability of the teleoperator with any passive environment is guaranteed. Coordination error and the overall motion aspects of teleoperation are controlled individually. The proposed control law is also applicable to general nonlinear robotic teleoperators if sufficiently high kinematic feedback gains are used. The proposed control schemes have been validated experimentally for both LDS and non-LDS systems.

In this paper, a teleoperation controller is proposed for a pair of nonlinear master and slave manipulators. The control law enables the nonlinear robots to be perfectly coordinated despite arbitrary environment and human forcings, while ensuring that the closed loop teleoperator system is passive with respect to a supply rate that includes a user specified bilateral power scaling factor. After perfect coordination has been attained, the control law constrains n degrees of freedom (DOF). The dynamics of the remaining n degrees of freedom resembles those of a usual rigid robot. Thus, the teleoperator becomes a common rigid mechanical tool with which both the human operator and the physical environment interact.

In a previous paper (see ibid., p. 3278-83), a control law renders a 2n-degree of freedom (DOF) nonlinear teleoperator (consisting of n-DOF master and slave robots) as a n-DOF common passive mechanical tool which has the usual robotic dynamics. In this paper, we develop a control methodology to endow the resulting n-DOF common passive mechanical tool with useful passive tool dynamics which incorporates inertia scaling, guidance/avoidance system while preserving energetic passivity of the closed-loop system. A fictitious energy storage is used to scale the apparent inertia of the teleoperator. The passive velocity field control for a velocity field tracking and artificial potential function are utilized for guidance/avoidance system. Thus, with the control law proposed previously, the control law renders the 2n-DOF teleoperator as a n-DOF common passive mechanical tool which has programmable apparent inertia and moves under the effects of velocity/potential field tailored to task objectives and obstacles in the workspace.

Presents a miniature robotic system ("scout") useful for reconnaissance and surveillance missions. A large number of scout robots are deployed and controlled by humans and/or larger "ranger" robots. The specially designed and constructed scouts are extremely small (roughly 116cc volume) yet are readily deployable (by tossing or launching), have multiple mobility modes, have multiple sensing capabilities, can transmit and receive data and instructions, and have a limited capability for autonomous action. The rangers are significantly larger vehicles, based on a commercial-off-the-shelf platform, augmented with scout launchers, radios, and additional sensors. Together, the scouts and rangers form a hierarchical team capable of carrying out complex missions in a wide variety of environments.

Two concepts are advocated for the task specification and control of mechanical manipulators: 1) coding tasks in terms of velocity fields; 2) designing controllers so that the manipulator when under feedback control, interacts in an energetically passive manner with its physical environment. Based on these two concepts, a new passive velocity field controller is proposed which mimics the behavior of a passive energy storage element, such as a flywheel or a spring. It stores and releases energy while interacting with the manipulator, but does not generate any. The controller has the interesting property that it stabilizes any multiple (positive or negative) of the desired velocity field, and exponentially stabilizes the particular multiple of the desired velocity field which is determined by the total kinetic energy of the manipulator control system.

Two concepts for the task specification and control for mechanical manipulators are advocated: the coding of tasks in terms of velocity fields; and controllers that maintain the passivity relationship between the manipulator and its physical environment. A passive velocity field tracking controller is proposed. The proposed dynamic controller mimics a flywheel: it stores and releases energy to the manipulator, but does not generate any. The controller has the interesting property that it stabilizes any multiple (positive or negative) of the desired velocity field, and exponentially stabilizes the particular multiple which is related to the total kinetic energy of the manipulator+controller.