Bilateral teleoperation method using an autonomous control based on information on contact environment

In procedures that involve remote control, such as remote surgery, it is necessary to operate a robot in a remote location in a sensitive environment; the treatment of internal organs is an example of such a procedure. In this paper, we propose a method for autonomous hazard avoidance control that is based on information on the contact environment. The proposed method involves the use of bilateral control. During safe operations, systems are controlled by bilateral control. During dangerous operations, a slave system is controlled autonomously so as to avoid dangerous operations. In order to determine the degree of operation risk, fuzzy set theory is applied to the force exerted on the environment. Further, variable compliance control based on the force exerted on the environment is utilized to avoid the risk. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by experimental results.