Cooperative control of a multi-arm system using semi-autonomous telemanipulation and adaptive impedance

This paper addresses problems to achieve transparency and contact stability for single master multi-slave telemanipulation that consists of unconstrained and constrained motions. The adaptive bilateral control with a local force compensator is developed based on adaptive impedance control and contact force driven compensation with auto-switching functions. With a limited amount of knowledge about robotic and environment dynamics and a time-varying communication delay, the developed method guarantees good adaptive tracking performance in unconstrained motion and reduction of oscillating contacts to keep a balance of the system in constrained motion. Based on an actual haptic device and virtual robots, haptic simulations are presented to demonstrate adaptive transparency and contact stability in the presence of communication delays.