Kinematic analysis and design of a 6 DOF haptic master for teleoperation of a mobile manipulator

In this paper, a new design of a 6DOF haptic master is presented, and the architectural parameters are discussed in consideration of the kinematic characteristics. This device was intended to teleoperate a mobile manipulator, which requires planar 3 DOF motion for navigation of the vehicle and full 6 DOF motion for manipulation. The proposed haptic master is composed of two parallel mechanisms, and each mechanism offers 3 DOF independently. The spatial mechanism, which extends the workspace into 3D, is attached on the planar mechanism for vehicle operation. Since low inertia is vital to back-drivability and transparency of the haptic device, ail actuators are placed on the base and thus some forces for haptic feedback are transmitted by the tendon-driven mechanism. This paper presents the kinematic analysis of the haptic master with respect to the workspace and the performance indices related to the Jacobian. The actual system was constructed with the architectural parameters determined on the basis of the analysis.