Comparison of Collaboration Methods between Users in Remote Robot Systems with Force Feedback

In this paper, we deal with cooperative work between two remote robot systems with force feedback and make a comparison of collaboration methods between two users by experiment. In the cooperative work, a user of each system operates a robot arm having a force sensor to carry an object together with the other user by using a haptic interface device. For collaboration between the users, the reaction force is calculated from position information of the haptic interface devices and presented to each user to transmit the force information to the other user. Then, the user can feel the force which is sensed by the force sensor as well as the calculated reaction force. We change the ratio of the two kinds of force presented to each user as collaboration methods in the following two relationships between the users: Equal and master-slave relationships. Experimental results demonstrate that the preferable ratios are dependent on the type of relationship.