Design of Two-Channel Bilateral Control Systems by a Transfer-Function-Based Approach

In this paper, we propose a design method of a two-channel bilateral control system using an approach based on transfer function. The configuration of such a control system can be realized by designing a complementary sensitivity function. Compared with the conventional four-channel bilateral control, our system has better control performance and requires fewer communication channels. The proposed scheme can be extended to micro/macro bilateral control that changes the scaling ratio of the master to slave systems. The proposed bilateral control can be realized simply by using a simple controller. In order to compare performances of the proposed method and the conventional four-channel bilateral control, ordinary bilateral control and micro/macro bilateral control are performed by a simple experimental machine with a one-degree-of-freedom mechanism. We discuss the features of each method by comparing the transparency and operability of both methods.