Haptic Tele-cooperation of Multiple Robots

Abstract

In this paper, a novel haptic tele-cooperation control scheme for a system consisting of multiple manipulators interacting with a physical or virtual object is proposed. The contact force between each manipulator and the object is decomposed into two independent forces, one of which is related to grasping the object and the other is related to the motion of the object including its interaction with the environment it is in. The Lyapunov's direct method is used for designing and stability analysis of the proposed controller. As a case study, the problem of robotic tele-rehabilitation is investigated where multiple human operators (e.g., one or more therapists, patients, and trainees in a tele-rehabilitation setting) control their user interfaces in order to tele-cooperatively manipulate an object in a virtual environment. Experimental results confirm the performance and effectiveness of the proposed control methodology.