Improving teleoperation performance in the presence of non-ideal robot dynamics

The use of thin and lightweight arms and cable-driven end-effectors in space and surgical manipulators introduces link and/or joint flexibility. When such manipulators are used as the slave robot of a master-slave teleoperation system, teleoperation performance can be degraded. We report a comparison of teleoperation system performances under slave robot link and joint flexibility (tool flexibility). We also evaluate the added benefits of using extra sensors at the tip of the flexible slave robot. It is reported that tip velocity (or position) feedback improves free-space position tracking performance in the presence of robot flexibility. Also, when the interaction forces with an environment are measured by a force sensor and fed back to the userpsilas hand, tip velocity feedback improves hard-contact force tracking performance. During a hard contact task, tip velocity feedback can also eliminate the transmission of robot flexibility to the userpsilas hand.