Decoupled Bilateral Control Based on Modal Space Observer in Master-Slave Systems with Different Masses

SUMMARY This paper proposes a method of decoupled bilateral control based on a modal space observer. In a conventional bilateral control system, the structures of master-slave systems are not considered. This paper shows that a force controller and a position controller in a bilateral control system interfere with each other when the structures of the master-slave systems are different. In order to solve this problem, a bilateral control system based on a hybrid matrix has been proposed. However, the computational process for calculating the hybrid matrix becomes complicated as the numbers of degrees of freedom in the master-slave systems increase. In the proposed method, a nominal equivalent mass matrix with respect to the modal space is used, and the interfering terms are estimated and compensated using a modal space observer. Therefore, a simple control structure is realized using the proposed method. The performance of the proposed method is compared to that of the conventional methods through simulations and experiments, and the validity of the proposed method is confirmed.