Switching bilateral control system for haptic training

In Japan, industrial engineering is becoming increasingly automated by progress of the robot technology. However, the skills of expert engineers is being lost without handing down. Therefore, the realization of the haptic training system is desired. In this research, the switching bilateral system for haptic training system is proposed. Trainer can instruct his movement to more than one trainee by using proposed method at the same time. Moreover, each trainee can select bilateral or unilateral haptic transmittion by switching dynamically. Therefore, trainer can instruct trainee who is selecting bilateral haptic transmission how much force trainer is adding. Furthermore, switching bilateral system can change the number of trainee by swtiching some trainee systems into uncconected mode. The switching between modes is achieved dynamically, smoothly and stably. The experimental results show the availability of the proposed method.