Semi-Autonomous Bilateral Teleoperation of Hexapod Robot Based on Haptic Force Feedback

Abstract

With the widespread use of multi-legged robots in various applications, new challenges have arisen in terms of designing their control systems, one of which is posed by the multiple degrees of freedom of the robotic legs. This paper proposes a novel method for the bilateral teleoperation control of a hexapod robot by using a semi-autonomous strategy. In this teleoperation system, the body velocities of the slave robot and the displacements of the master robot are mapped to each other. The angular velocities of the joints of the legs rely on independent planning to achieve a horizontal movement. A controller is designed based on the difference between the expected velocity and the actual velocity of the body, and the difference is fed back to the operator in the form of haptic force. Therefore, the transparency of the control system is guaranteed by increasing the damping compensation both in the master and slave robots. In addition, the stability of the bilateral teleoperation control system of the hexapod robot is guaranteed by passivity theory, and the proposed method is verified by conducting semi-physical simulation experiments.