Bilateral control with 2-DOF haptic spherical interface

In this paper, bilateral control with two degrees of freedom (2-DOF) haptic spherical interface is proposed. There is much research about the mechanical structure of the haptic interface to realize large movable range. However, these are not suitable for the interface of the open environment. In addition, to achieve wide movable range, there are some problems that the robot gets large and the large inertia deteriorates the operationality according to the movable range. In this paper, by utilizing a sphere as a interface, the interface has the two degrees of freedom and the unlimited movable range. The interface is utilized as the master robot. Meanwhile, an X-Y stage is utilized as the slave robot. The number of the actuators, the actuator type, and the structures are different between master-slave robots. Hence, bilateral control considering the differences is proposed.