The application of force feedback control schemes from studies on robotic systems to analyze a teleoperation system involving humans

The application of theoretical concepts and other principles from studies of force feedback control systems in robotics can be used to better understand a teleoperative system. Within the context of a robotic system, the teleoperation problem can be viewed as a strictly force control system in which the end-effector must maintain a specified force pattern on the environment. Using this analogy, the environment may be modelled as being subjected to disturbances or an active compliance. Such technical issues as stability, performance, controllability, and other developments in the control systems literature now easily extend to the area of teleoperation involving humans. To illustrate this procedure, an analysis is conducted of a system from an ongoing experiment. This experiment involves handicapped people and normals participating in a study to analyze the effect on performance of different types of force feedback algorithms and target tracking tasks