Coordinated control of multi-axis tasks

The use of manipulators and the development of manipulator technology has steadily increased in recent years. Consequently, teleoperation or the remote operation of a machine or piece of equipment has also increased. Typically, teleoperation is employed in situations where the environment is dangerous or too remote for humans to work. In space exploration with the use of dextrous manipulators, teleoperation has become a critical component. This paper describes tests carried out to evaluate three man-machine interfaces with two dextrous manipulators. The three interfaces were a master/slave system with force reflection, a master slave system without force reflection, and two six degree of freedom handcontrollers. Results indicated that task accuracy was superior with the handcontrollers. The time taken to complete the tasks with the handcontroller was longer than with the master/slave system with force reflection but with force reflection removed, no differences were found.