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.