Master–Slave Control of a Teleoperated Anthropomorphic Robotic Arm With Gripping Force Sensing

This paper details the design and development of a low-cost control rig to intuitively manipulate an anthropomorphic robotic arm using a bilateral master-slave control methodology. Special emphasis has been given to the ease of operation and some form of force sensation. The control rig is fitted to the user´s arm, and the forces exerted by the robotic arm´s various joints are fed back to the user. Of special significance is the force feedback from the slave when its gripper is in contact with a real object. Several methods of force sensing have been explored and detailed. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by experiments on a commercially available robotic arm, which is controlled by a prototype three-axis master unit. The robotic arm mimics the dexterity of the human hand, wrist, and fingers. The proposed master control unit is cost effective and will have wide-ranging applications in the fields of medicine, manufacturing, security, extreme environment, entertainment, and remotely operated vehicle teleoperation in undersea recovery or extraterrestrial exploration vehicle