Asynchronous multilateral control for simplified walking haptic system

Recently, there has been extensive development in remote communication technologies such as telephone, radio, and television. Haptic information is studied as the third type of multimedia information. Real-world haptics is getting attention not only for the feedback of real-world haptic information in teleoperation but also as the key technology for future human support. Most of the objects of study in haptics are stationary. Therefore, the moving range of such haptic systems is limited. This paper proposes a novel haptic device that receives force feedback of walking motion from a remote environment and manipulates remote system. Thus, its moving range is unrestricted. To drive this haptic system, the paper also proposes asynchronous multilateral control. By using this control, an operator can operate the remote system without changing his/her position. The proposed haptic system is expected to act as an effective interface for virtual reality applications and teleoperation.