A remote handling rate-position controller for telemanipulating in a large workspace

Abstract

This paper presents a new Haptic Rate-Position controller, which allows manipulating a slave robot in a large workspace using a small haptic device. This control algorithm is very e ective when the master device is much smaller than the slave device. Haptic information is displayed to the user so as to be informed when a change in the operation mode occurs. This controller allows performing tasks in a large remote workspace by using a haptic device with a reduced workspace such as Phantom. Experimental results have been carried out using a slave robot from Kraft Telerobotics and a commercial haptic interface as a master device. A curvature path following task has been simulated using the proposed controller which was compared with the force-position control algorithm. Results obtained show that higher accuracy is obtained when the proposed method is used, spending a similar amount of time to perform the task.(C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.