Time Domain Control for Passive Variable Motion and Force Scaling in Delayed Teleoperation

Abstract

Scaling of motion and forces has always been of high relevance in teleoperation setups since it allows the adaptation of workspaces of master and slave devices or to increase precision. Teleoperation setups are often affected by a delay in the communication channel. Most state of the art control approaches that guarantee stability despite delay are based on the passivity criterion which is highly restrictive to standard scaling methods. This paper proposes different time domain control concepts that regulate the motion or force scaling based on the energy flow in delayed teleoperation systems. The approach focuses on setups with motion down-scaling and is applicable to variable motion and impedance scaling. The scaling control is integrated in a state of the art time delay control concept and its performance is analyzed in experiments.