Development of single-master multislave telemicromanipulation system

This paper presents a novel single-master (PHANToM haptic device) multislave telemicromanipulator system using two parallel mechanism micromanipulators as a slave device. Firstly, the motivation of this research is mentioned. Then, the system structure and the configuration of our experimental system are introduced. In this system, there exists singular position problem which prevents precise and flexible movement of parallel mechanism manipulators. Through several simulations like a rectilinear movement, singular position and the manipulability of the dual-micromanipulator system is analyzed. Also, the different kinematical configuration and the different DOF between the master and the slave introduces a mapping problem which can be serious for some cooperative manipulations. Therefore, the mapping method between the master and the slave is discussed in this paper. A manipulation strategy to build the system that human and both manipulators perform the cooperative manipulation is also introduced. Finally, several experimental and simulation results are shown to verify the proposed system.