Feedback strategy for human-robot shared controlled single-master multi-slave tele-micromanipulation

This paper proposes a novel force feedback strategy for single-master multi-slave tele-micromanipulation system which was developed in our laboratory. This work is motivated by the high necessity of proper force feedback strategy to provide better operability to the human operator which results in the improvement of overall task performance. As the test bed, we've developed a novel single-master (PHANToM haptic device) multi-slave (6 D.O.F parallel manipulator) tele-micromanipulation system which enables human operators to perform micro tasks, such as microassembly or manufacturing with lower stress. We have focused on improving the human's operability and overall dexterity of our previous tele-micromanipulation system "Haptic Loupe". In this paper, the position/force virtual mapping method to overcome the master/slave asymmetry is implemented to realize the human-robot shared control framework on internal force while grasping task. In this shared control framework, the generated reference trajectories of both manipulators by the virtual mapping method are shared with the cooperative impedance control of parallel mechanism multi-slave to regulate the internal force while grasping an object. Lastly, several pick-and-place experimental results show a dramatic improvement of internal force regulation capability and an operability by the proposed feedback strategy based on the shared control framework in single-master multi-slave tele-micromanipulation system.