An unilateral master-slave hand system with a force-controlled slave hand

We have developed a new unilateral master-slave hand system. The master system consists of a master arm which has a 3-DOF parallel link mechanism and a 3-DOF wrist mechanism, and a dataglove that is usually used for a virtual reality system. The slave system has a 6-DOF arm and a 16-DOF four-fingered hand. In general, a slave system is controlled by position with reference to a master system position. In this system, when an operator makes the slave system work on a complicated task, he must look at the slave carefully and let his arm and hand manipulate discretely. In the new master-slave system, each finger of the slave hand has a fingertip tactile sensor, and it is controlled by position and force. When an operator has knowledge of a task and handling objects and sets the slave fingertip stiffness, the operation can be performed easily by handling the master arm and hand to a rough position