Sliding mode and EKF observers for communication delay compensation in bilateral control systems

To address the problem of internet based communication delay in bilateral control systems, numerous methods have been proposed. This study is among the few recent studies taking a disturbance observer approach to the problem of time delay, and introduces a sliding-mode (SM) observer to overcome specifically the effects of communication delay in the feedback loop. The observer operates in combination with a PD+ controller which controls the system dynamics, while also compensating load torque uncertainties on the slave side. To this aim, an EKF based load estimation algorithm is performed on the slave side. The performance of this approach is tested with computer simulations for the teleoperation of a 1-DOF robotic arm. Experimental results are also presented to test the performance of the approach under constant and random measurement and control input delay for no load.