Comparison and improvement of control schemes for robotic teleoperation systems with time delay

Abstract. Telemanipulation, one of the first area in robotics to be developed, still attracts a noticeable research activity. In particular, several control schemes have been proposed for controlling telemanipulation systems with time delay, a problem that does not seem to be solved yet in a satisfactory manner. In this context, the goals of these notes are twofold. First, some criteria are presented and used in order to analyze and compare control techniques already known in the literature. This study can help the control designer in pointing out the basic features of a given methodology and in the definition of the relative control parameters. Second, a particular control scheme, the so-called IPC (Intrinsically Passive Control), is discussed in detail, and it is shown that proper modifications of the basic scheme can improve its performances in terms of the proposed criteria.