Stabilization and control of teleoperation systems with time delays

A control scheme for teleoperation systems with time delay is developed based on the concept of passivity. This control method requires neither detailed knowledge of the manipulator systems nor the mathematical models of the environments, and it is applicable for any time delays. The main contribution of this method is that it is less conservative than the traditional passivity based method. In this method, the passivity controller only operates when the system loses passivity, while in a traditional passivity formulation, the controller works at all times during operation and thus adversely affect the performance of the system.;Using the proposed control scheme, a sub-system is defined that is composed of the communication channel, slave robot and the manipulated environment. This sub system is treated as a one-port network component, and passivity theory is applied to this component to assure stability. The energy flowing into the one-port network, in the form of the control command and the force feedback, is monitored. A passivity regulator is activated to maintain the passivity of the network by modifying the feedback force to the master, and thus adjust the energy exchange between the master and the communication channel.;When this method is applied, only the information at the interface between the master manipulator and the communication channel is collected and observed, there is no need for accurate or detailed knowledge of the structure or timing of the communication channel. The method can make the system lossless regardless of the feedback force, the coordinating force controlling the slave joint motions or the contact force. The approach can stabilize the system regardless of the time delay, discontinuities with environmental contact, or discretization of the physical plant. It will pose no problem when the environmental contact force is directly fed back. The results of this work show that it is advantageous to use the measured environmental force as the feedback, providing superior performance for free motion and more realistic haptic feedback for the operator from the remote environment.;Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the proposed control scheme