Force and position coordination for delayed bilateral teleoperation of a manipulator robot

Abstract This paper focuses on the design and analysis of a P+d+f (Proportional, Derivative, and Force) variable control strategy aimed at delayed bilateral teleoperation of a manipulator robot, the ultimate goal of which is to obtain simultaneous coordination of force and position between the haptic device and the robot. The proposed controller changes the damping based on both the time delay and feedback power signal measured online. Unlike other P+d+f strategies, this proposal avoids terms with discontinuities in the controller, cancellation of human and environment forces and also prevents the explicit use of environment parameters. The proposal uses variable damping dependent on a feedback power signal, which reduces kinetic energy to ensure bounded control errors. Simulations are performed to verify that dual coordination is achieved without using explicit nonlinear damping in the controller or needing the parametric knowledge of the environment model, which is useful to apply the controller to most commercial manipulator robots.