Quantitative Estimation of Dynamic Modulation in Remote Environment Sensing

Abstract

Teleoperated robots are an effective means to sense a remote environment. Impedance control is often preferred in teleoperated robots due to its capability to modulate the dynamic relationship between the position and force of the robot. One of the challenges in the practical implementation of impedance controllers is the determination of the extent to which the dynamic properties of the robot are to be modified. A methodology for quantitatively estimating the desired dynamic parameters of the robot in order to have stable interaction with the environment is proposed in this paper. The best set of scaling factors by which the environment parameters need to be scaled to obtain a corresponding desired parameter for the robot are formulated. In addition, novel impedance controllers for teleoperated robots, which achieve the desired dynamic performance even under time-varying delays, are formulated in this paper. The uniqueness of the proposed controllers lies in enabling the system to interact with a wide range of environments, unlike the traditional teleoperation controllers which allow interaction with only those environments whose dynamic properties are within a specific range. Passivity analysis is performed to prove the global asymptotic stability of the system. Experimental implementation demonstrates the successful sensing of a wide range of environments.