Teleoperation with uncertain environment and communication channel: An ℋ∞ robust approach

In this paper, a decentralized control structure is proposed based on ℋ∞ robust control synthesis for teleoperated needle insertion in an iterative approach. Since the teleoperation system is subject to unknown time delays in the communication channels, the proposed methodology should be capable of dealing with nonlinearities and uncertainty in environment model and communication channel. The ideal transparency besides robust stability is achieved through a suboptimal solution in an ℋ∞ optimization problem. The method is scrutinized in details for a reality-based model of soft tissues as environment. Simulation results reveal applicability of the proposed methodology for practical implementations.