Realization of virtual force sensation through bilateral teleoperation

Recent machines are hoped to have haptic ability to work in open environment where it changes dynamically. Haptics is a technology for touching an object. Nowadays, teleoperation is utilized in many areas such as medical care and space exploration. Teleoperation system enables operator to undertake precisework in such inaccessible or hazardous environment. Among much research about teleoperation, bilateral teleoperation is effective to reproduce the force sensation of contact force at master side. The aim of bilateral teleoperation is to reproduce the force sensation at master side. However, to reproduce the force sensation of contact force exactly is not always desired. The aim of this paper is to reproduce the virtual force sensation at master side. Operator receives the reaction force from not the real environment but the setup environmental model. Operator can design the setup environmental model arbitrarily, as long as the whole system holds stability. Master robot interacts with the setup environmental model and slave robot interacts with the real environment. To verify the validity of the proposed method, some simulations and experiments are performed.