Scaled teleoperation controller design for micromanipulation over Internet

Developments on micro/nano manipulation and Internet technologies allow potential impacts on networked-micro-automation of small industrial products. However, reliable and efficient tele-micromanipulation systems with haptic feedback over the Internet face strong problems due to the nonlinear nature of the microenvironment and time-varying delays in communication lines. Towards this end, this paper presents a robust bilateral controller design using H_∞-optimal control and μ-synthesis frameworks. This approach allows a convenient means to tradeoff the optimization of various performance criteria (micro scale force/position) and robustness for a prespecified time-delay margin and force scaling factors. The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated by simulations and experiments for a pick-and-place micromanipulation task.