Semi-autonomous teleoperation system using virtual tool

Proposes a semi-autonomous control algorithm for a telemanipulator system based on a task-oriented virtual mechanism. The authors design a task-oriented virtual mechanism, or a task-oriented tool dynamics for a given task and separate its coordinate system into the coordinates in autonomous mode and the coordinates in manually-controlled mode. Then, the authors design a controller for the telemanipulator system so that the system has the dynamics of the task-oriented tool. Thus, the maneuverability of the system is improved by controlling the telemanipulator system so that the system, behaves as a tool. By assuming the passivity of an operator, the total stability of the resultant system is guaranteed for a passive environment with unknown dynamics. The proposed control algorithm is experimentally applied to a telemanipulator system. The experimental results illustrate the validity of the proposed control algorithm