An Observer-based Force Reflection Robust Control for Dual User Haptic Surgical Training System

This paper investigates the controller design problem for the dual user haptic surgical training system. In this system, the trainer and the trainee are interfaced together through their haptic devices and the surgical operations on the virtual environment is performed by the trainee. The trainer is able to interfere into the procedure in the case that any mistakes is made by the trainee. In the proposed structure, the force of the trainer's hands is reflected to the hands of the trainee to give necessary guidance to the trainee. The force signal is obtained from an unknown input high gain observer. The position of the trainee and the contact force with the environment are sent to the trainer to give him necessary information regarding the status of surgical operations. Stabilizing control laws are also designed for each haptic device and the stability of the closed loop nonlinear system is proven. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller synthesis.