Workspace mapping and force control for small haptic device based robot teleoperation

When a large robot manipulator is remotely controlled by means of a small haptic device, there are two issues which should be addressed: mapping of robot arm workspace and haptic device workspace, and accurate and safe control of the movement of the robot arm. This paper presents a haptic device workspace spanning control method for haptic-based teleoperation. The spanning control method includes haptic-space scaling control, drift control and edge motion control. A force control algorithm is also presented to control the robot arm's motion in complex 3D environments. Experimental results demonstrate that the mapping method and the force control algorithm can remotely control a robot arm to rapidly reach target positions, minimize the oscillation of the haptic device handle, achieve accurate positioning and provide the operator with efficient touch sensing.