An approach to a haptics system control by mobile manipulator

Ordinary bilateral system mainly discussed on the control of fixed manipulator with same structures, or macro-micro teleoperation system with small slave working area compared to the master manipulator. However, larger working area for the slave robot is preferable in order to adjust to the various tasks and conditions of the environment. Also expansion of the slave working area must be accomplished without interrupting the manipulability and not deteriorating the user friendliness. Here, we propose a bilateral system using mobile manipulator. A mobile manipulator is a manipulator mounted on a mobile platform. Thus it provides much larger workspace compared to the fixed manipulators. However this advantage makes it difficult to apply a common bilateral form with two port model because of the differences in range of movement. As a solution, only the force transmission is done to both master and slave. And by estimating the environmental information using least square method, environment information is expressed to the master manipulator. Aim of this proposal is to improve the operationality of the master system. Validity of the proposal is confirmed by simulation result.