Model-mediated Telemanipulation

Abstract

This paper presents a user-centered, model-mediated approach to bilateral telemanipulation under large communication delays. Assuming that the environment is only slowly or infrequently changing, it mitigates user perception difficulties and allows stable motion and force interactions with the remote environment. Rather than directly sending slave sensory data to the user, the method abstracts the data to form a very simple model of the environment. The model is transmitted to the master, where it is haptically rendered for user feedback without any lag. In return, the slave only executes force or motion commands consistent with the model. This effectively mediates the master—slave interaction. Particular attention is placed on the system behavior as it adjusts to unexpected environment interactions and as the model updates. The basic principles of the approach are demonstrated on a simple one degree-of-freedom telerobotic system operating with four seconds of round-trip delay.