Virtual environment for robotic tele-rehabilitation

Haptic and visual displays are combined to realize cooperative, force-feedback tasks over the Internet. The operators "exert" forces on a virtual object which in turn generates a set of reaction forces to be displayed on the haptic devices. A novel cooperative control architecture based on wave variables is implemented to realize stable operation in the presence of time delays. The control scheme is validated experimentally for a manipulation task over the Internet using a pair of InMotion2 robots. Preliminary results are also presented for 3D tasks rendered on a head-mounted display equipped with a head tracker for changing viewing angles.