The DLR Telepresence Experience in Space and Surgery

Abstract

High-fidelity telepresence is considered to be a key subject for the development of advanced robotic applications in space and surgery. The fact that there are only few robots in space and surgery is mainly due to the lack of broadly available sophisticated autonomy and haptic feedback within present robotic systems. Nevertheless, these requirements need to be fullled to overcome telepresence barriers, such as (communication) delay, scaling, matter, hazard etc. Besides the technological need for ultralight impedance-controlled robots combined with a high-speed data link the telepresence control strategies including supervisory and bilateral control are essential for high-delity telepresence and an immersive impression of the remote side to the human operator. This approach is successfully tested recently within the technology experiment ROKVISS, Germany's present space robotic project. Its aim is the verication and qualication of the DLR's newest lightweight robot joint technologies and provides, for the rst time, realistic force feedback in a telepresence space application. The same holds for the new telepresence system for minimally invasive robotic surgery The system will provide realistic 6DoF force/torque feedback of the manipulation wrench as well as of the grasping force. Therefore, a lightweight robot for surgery is built, including a high-speed data link to the haptic master station.