A novel robust stability analysis framework is presented for unconditional stability analysis of multimaster/multislave teleoperation systems. Unlike the unconditional stability criterion for single-user systems, the newly proposed criteria for unconditional stability of multimaster/multislave teleoperation systems depend on the multiport network parameters and the port terminations. In addition to the analytical solution, the graphical demonstration of the unconditional stability region facilitates the analysis of coupled stability against variations in the dynamics of the environments and operators, even when they behave actively. The proposed robust stability analysis framework is examined on two multilateral shared control architectures that were previously developed for dual-user teleoperation systems.

This paper proposes two new multilateral shared control architectures for dual-user haptic training systems. Similar to the architecture previously proposed in, the controllers allow interaction between both users, the trainee and the trainer, as well as between the users and the virtual slave robot and environment. However, the newly proposed architectures provide increased maneuverability and enhanced sense of environment to the users. The kinesthetic performance of the proposed control architectures are analyzed under different operating conditions. Furthermore, the architectures are implemented on a dual-user haptic simulation testbed for user study experiments to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed architectures in terms of sense of environment, maneuverability, and guidance.

In this paper the performance of a dual-user haptic simulation system with a proposed shared control architecture is experimentally evaluated for a specific trajectory following task under different operating conditions. The multilateral control architecture developed for training purposes, allows interaction between both users, the trainee and the trainer, as well as between the users and the virtual slave robot in a shared environment. The performance of the architecture is evaluated experimentally in terms of the effect of environment point of view, environment mushiness, and the existence of virtual fixtures. The performance is measured against task completion time, the path following accuracy and energy exchange by the trainer and the trainee.

This paper proposes a new multilateral position-position shared control architecture for dual-user haptic training. The proposed controller allows interaction between both users, the trainee and the trainer, as well as between the users and the virtual slave robot and environment. It also allows for the adjustment of the dominance of the trainer over the trainee in interaction with the virtual slave and environment through a dominance factor parameter. The issue of transparency in such collaborative haptic simulation system has been discussed. A performance index has also been defined to quantify the users' skill for a specific task under study. This metric is used to identify the maximum allowable dominance of the trainee over the trainer. Haptic simulation experiments have been carried out with two planar twin pantograph haptic devices and a simulated pantograph as the slave robot.

This paper proposes a novel four-channel multilateral shared control architecture for dual-user teleoperation systems. The proposed control architecture is designed to allow interaction between two users as well as slave and environment through a dominance factor. The dominance factor adjusts the authority of the users over the slave robot and the task. To analyze transparency performance in dual-user systems, a number of performance measures are examined or proposed. These measures are evaluated for various types of environments, users' grasps, and levels of dominance of the users over the task.

In dual-user teleoperation systems, unlike traditional teleoperation systems, two users are in interaction with each other as well as with environment. In this paper, the issue of transparency in such collaborative systems is discussed. In addition a number of measures are presented to analyze kinesthetic performance in dual-user systems. These indices are evaluated for a collaborative haptic control architecture presented in [1] for various types of environments, user grasps, and levels of dominance of users over tasks.