Virtual force guided control method for teleoperated manipulator system over internet

Telepresence is a critical problem in robotic teleoperation systems. For the sake of collision avoidance between the end-effecter and the object, the human operator has to make close observations on the visual information. This overloads the visual sense of the human operator. On the other hand, there are some potential obstacles in gathering vision information. As a result, the advance notice of collision might be missed or neglected. In order to settle this issue, a virtual force guided control method for robotic teleoperation system is proposed in this paper. This approach combines position-force command strategy and virtual force feedback to perform proper operations, where the virtual force is generated by transforming visual information into reflective force. This control approach improves the operability of teleoperation system and enhances the effectiveness. Experiments are conducted and demonstrate the effectiveness of the virtual force guided control method.