Master-slave Operation Research Articles

Bilateral Master-Slave Arms Controlled with Variable Gains by Force-Sensed Grips.

A method is proposed for bilateral control of master-slave teleoperation, where the system supports some cooperative action between manual and automatic modes. This control method uses a variable gain which changes the connection of dual modes. The bilateral master arm is usually controlled by a computer using known information, but if it is necessary for a human operator to adjust the course, the computer operation can be intervened by moving the master arm by grasping the grid stronger. More intense intervention by human operation is performed by a larger-variable coefficient which depends on the strength of grasping the grid by the human hand. This control configuration realizes efficient master-slave operations with both simplicity of command and flexibility of skilled human operators.

A Runtime Monitoring System for Hybrid Manual/Autonomous Teleoperation

This paper describes a hierarchical design and implementation of a runtime monitoring system for hybrid manual/autonomous teleoperation and a novel bilateral master control device for teleoperation. Teleoperation tasks are time-consuming and impose heavy loads on human operators in hostile and unstructured environments. In order to realize efficient task execution and to reduce the burden on operators, we propose here a hybrid manual/autonomous approach, with implementation of a teleoperation system based on distributed hierarchical control architecture. A one DOF bilateral master device has been developed as a compact master system with quick response and precise position/force controllability. Using this system, general master-slave operations are performed. Through experimentation, it was confirmed that the hierarchical structure of the runtime monitoring system easily supports hybrid manual/autonomous teleoperation, and that the hybrid approach facilitates the tele-execution of complex tasks by combining with the master device.