A novel adaptive robust control architecture for bilateral teleoperation systems under time‐varying delays

Bilateral teleoperation technology has caused wide attentions due to its applications in various remote operation systems. The communication delay becomes one of the main challenging issues in the teleoperation control design. Meanwhile, various nonlinearities, parameter variations, and modeling uncertainties existing in manipulator and environment dynamics need to be considered carefully in order to achieve good control performance. In this paper, a globally stable nonlinear adaptive robust control algorithm is developed for bilateral teleoperation systems to deal with these control issues. Namely, the unknown dynamical parameters of the environmental force are estimated online by the improved least square adaptation law. A novel communication structure is proposed where only the master position signal is transmitted to the slave side for the tracking design, and the online estimators of the environmental parameters are transmitted from the slave to the master to replace the traditional environmental force measurement. Because the estimated environmental parameters are not power signals, the passivity problem of the communication channel and the trade‐off limitation between the transparency performance and robust stability in traditional teleoperation control are essentially avoided. The nonlinear adaptive robust control is subsequently developed to deal with nonlinearities, unknown parameters, and modeling uncertainties of the master, slave, and environmental dynamics, so that the guaranteed transient and steady‐state transparency performance can be achieved. The experiments on two voice‐coil motor‐driven manipulators are carried out, and the comparative results verify that the proposed control algorithm achieves the excellent control performance and the guaranteed robust stability simultaneously under time delays. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于广义扩张状态观测器的遥操作系统同步控制

针对机械臂遥操作系统中存在的时变时延问题,提出了基于广义扩张状态观测器的控制方法,实现了遥操作系统稳定并且主从机械臂关节角位置同步的控制目标。首先通过反馈线性化,将遥操作系统的主从机械臂动力学模型转化为一个关于位置跟踪误差和时延的状态空间模型。针对该多输入多输出的干扰不匹配模型,设计了广义扩张状态观测器和相应的控制律,从而消除了时变时延以及其它扰动引起的不确定性对系统的影响,并对系统进行稳定性和抗扰性分析。最后,通过仿真验证了所设计的控制方法的有效性。     

A novel adaptive bilateral control scheme using similar closed‐loop dynamic characteristics of master/slave manipulators

This article presents a novel adaptive bilateral control scheme for obtaining ideal responses for teleoperation systems with uncertainties. A condition that is equivalent to getting an ideal response in teleoperation has been found to be making the closed‐loop dynamics of master and slave manipulators a similar form. An adaptive approach is applied to achieve similarity for the uncertain master and slave manipulators. Using the similar closed‐loop dynamic characteristics of master/slave teleoperation systems, excellent position and force tracking performance has been obtained without estimating the impedance of human and environment. The validity of the theoretical results is verified by experiments. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A design of bilateral teleoperation systems using composite adaptive controller

This paper presents a synchronization scheme of bilateral teleoperation systems using composite adaptive controller. To design a controller for bilateral teleoperation systems, all the parameters of the master and the slave robots need to be known. However, there exist parameter uncertainties in the robot manipulators. A composite adaptive controller is designed for convergence of states and parameters of the master and the slave robots in the presence of parameter uncertainties. Consequently, position and force tracking problems in free and contact motion are solved in a synchronized manner. Through a number of simulations, the superiority of the proposed method over existing works is illustrated. Furthermore, for the validation of utility of the proposed method in an actual embedded system, the algorithms are implemented and tested in FPGA-based hardware controller.     

Control schemes for passive teleoperation systems over wide area communication networks with time varying delay

In this paper,the problem of time varying telecommunication delays in passive teleoperation systems is addressed.The design comprises delayed position,velocity and position-velocity signals with the local position and velocity signals of the master and slave manipulators.Nonlinear adaptive control terms are employed locally to cope with uncertain parameters associated with the gravity loading vector of the master and slave manipulators.Lyapunov-Krasovskii function is employed for three methods to establish asymptotic tracking property of the closed loop teleoperation systems.The stability analysis is derived for both symmetrical and unsymmetrical time varying delays in the forward and backward communication channel that connects the local and remote sites.Finally,evaluation results are presented to illustrate the efectiveness of the proposed design for real-time applications.     

Adaptive neural network control of bilateral teleoperation with unsymmetrical stochastic delays and unmodeled dynamics

In this paper, adaptive NN control is proposed for bilateral teleoperation system with dynamic uncertainties, unknown external disturbances, and unsymmetrical stochastic delays in communication channel to achieve transparency and robust stability. Compared with previous passivity‐based teleoperation framework, the communication delays are unsymmetrical and stochastic. By partial feedback linearization using nominal dynamics, the nonlinear dynamics of the teleoperation system are transformed into two subsystems: local master/slave dynamics control and time‐delay motion tracking. By integrating Markov jump systems and adaptive parameters updating, adaptive NN control strategy is developed. The stability of the closed‐loop system and the boundedness of tracking errors are proved using Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional synthesis under specific linear matrix inequalities conditions. The proposed adaptive NN control is robust against motion disturbances, parametric uncertainties, and unsymmetrical stochastic delay, which effectiveness is validated by extensive simulation studies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Generalized control method by state convergence for teleoperation systems with time delay

In this paper a generalized design and control method for teleoperation systems with communication time delay is presented. The design method is based on the state space formulation and it allows to obtain the control parameters for any teleoperation system where the master and the slave manipulators would be represented by nth-order linear differential equations. Through state convergence between the master and the slave, the control system allows the slave to follow the master inspite of the time delay. The method is also able to establish the desired dynamics of this convergence and the dynamics of the slave manipulator. Experimental results are presented showing the validity of the proposed design and control method.     

Bilateral parallel force/position teleoperation control

The extension of parallel force/position control to teleoperation systems is considered in this article. In the proposed four‐channel bilateral controller, higher priority is granted to position control at the master side and to force control at the slave side. The primary goal of this control architecture is the enhancement of force and position tracking performance in the presence of uncertainties in the system and environment. The stability and performance of the proposed controller is investigated by analyzing the three decoupled single‐degree‐of‐freedom systems obtained from decoupling and projecting the closed‐loop system dynamics onto the slave task‐space orthogonal directions. Experimental results demonstrate significant improvement in transparency. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Teleoperation Control of a Position‐Based Impedance Force Controlled Mobile Robot by Neural Network Learning: Experimental Studies

Effective haptic performance in teleoperation control systems can be achieved by solving two major problems: the time‐delay in communication channels and the transparency of force control. The time‐delay in communication channels causes poor performance and even instability in a system. The transparency of force feedback is important for an operator to improve the performance of a given task. This article suggests a possible solution for these two problems through the implementation of a teleoperation control system between the master haptic device and the slave mobile robot. Regulation of the contact force in the slave mobile robot is achieved by introducing a position‐based impedance force control scheme in the slave robot. The time‐delay problem is addressed by forming a Smith predictor configuration in the teleoperation control environment. The configuration of the Smith predictor structure takes the time‐delay term out of the characteristic equation in order to make the system stable when the system model is given a priori. Since the Smith predictor is formulated from exact linear modeling, a neural network is employed to identify and model the slave robot system as a nonlinear model estimator. Simulation studies of several control schemes are performed. Experimental studies are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed control scheme by regulating the contact force of a mobile robot through the master haptic device.     

不确定遥操作系统带干扰观测器的自适应控制

遥操作系统受到不同类型的不确定性因素影响, 这些不确定性会降低系统的透明性, 甚至会使得系统不稳定. 本文提出了一种带干扰观测器的自适应控制器(adaptive controller with disturbance observer, ACWDO) 用来处理遥操作系统中同时受到的外部干扰和内部动力学参数不确定性. 首先建立了受外部干扰的遥操作系统的非线性动力学模型; 然后分别对主机器人和从机器人设计非线性干扰观测器用来对外部干扰进行估计和补偿; 之后在干扰观测器基础之上分别对主机器人和从机器人设计自适应控制器用来处理内部不确定的动力学参数; 最后再将所设计的ACWDO融入到四通道遥操作系统结构中. 理论分析和仿真结果表明, 所设计的控制器可以取得良好的位置跟踪和力跟踪效果, 确保了遥操作系统的透明性.     

High-fidelity bilateral teleoperation systems and the effect of multimodal haptics.

In master-slave teleoperation applications that deal with a delicate and sensitive environment, it is important to provide haptic feedback of slave/environment interactions to the user's hand as it improves task performance and teleoperation transparency (fidelity), which is the extent of telepresence of the remote environment available to the user through the master-slave system. For haptic teleoperation, in addition to a haptics-capable master interface, often one or more force sensors are also used, which warrant new bilateral control architectures while increasing the cost and the complexity of the teleoperation system. In this paper, we investigate the added benefits of using force sensors that measure hand/master and slave/environment interactions and of utilizing local feedback loops on the teleoperation transparency. We compare the two-channel and the four-channel bilateral control systems in terms of stability and transparency, and study the stability and performance robustness of the four-channel method against nonidealities that arise during bilateral control implementation, which include master-slave communication latency and changes in the environment dynamics. The next issue addressed in the paper deals with the case where the master interface is not haptics capable, but the slave is equipped with a force sensor. In the context of robotics-assisted soft-tissue surgical applications, we explore through human factors experiments whether slave/environment force measurements can be of any help with regard to improving task performance. The last problem we study is whether slave/environment force information, with and without haptic capability in the master interface, can help improve outcomes under degraded visual conditions.     

A Composite State Convergence Scheme for Bilateral Teleoperation Systems

State convergence is a novel control algorithm for bilateral teleoperation of robotic systems. First, it models the teleoperation system on state space and considers all the possible interactions between the master and slave systems. Second, it presents an elegant design procedure which requires a set of equations to be solved in order to compute the control gains of the bilateral loop. These design conditions are obtained by turning the master-slave error into an autonomous system and imposing the desired dynamic behavior of the teleoperation system. Resultantly, the convergence of master and slave states is achieved in a well-defined manner. The present study aims at achieving a similar convergence behavior offered by state convergence controller while reducing the number of variables sent across the communication channel. The proposal suggests transmitting composite master and slave variables instead of full master and slave states while keeping the operator’s force channel intact. We show that, with these composite and force variables; it is indeed possible to achieve the convergence of states in a desired way by strictly following the method of state convergence. The proposal leads to a reduced complexity state convergence algorithm which is termed as composite state convergence controller. In order to validate the proposed scheme in the absence and presence of communication time delays, MATLAB simulations and semi-real time experiments are performed on a single degree-of-freedom teleoperation system.      

A novel approach for stability and transparency control of nonlinear bilateral teleoperation system with time delays

In this paper, a novel control approach is presented to improve the stability and transparency of the nonlinear bilateral teleoperation system with time delays, where a four-channel (4-CH) architecture using modified wave reflection reduction transformation is explored in order to guarantee the passivity of the communication channels in the nonlinear bilateral teleoperation system; a sliding-mode controller is proposed to compensate for the dynamic uncertainties and enhance the system synchronization performance in finite time. The system stability has been analyzed using Lyapunov functions. The proposed method is validated through experimental work based on a 3-DOF bilateral teleoperation platform in the presence of time delays. The experimental results clearly demonstrate that the proposed control algorithm has superiority on system transparency over other wave-based systems.     

Nonlinear adaptive control of master–slave system in teleoperation

This paper is devoted to the nonlinear control design problem to achieve stability of master–slave manipulators in teleoperation system and its transparency in the sense of motion/force tracking. Nonlinear adaptive controllers are bilaterally designed for both master and slave sites to guarantee the stability of whole system and motion tracking performance. Global boundedness of the overall adaptive system and asymptotic motion (velocity/position) tracking are established. Especially, the concept of “virtual master manipulator” is introduced to increase degree of freedom of control design for force tracking performance. The resulting force tracking error depends only on the acceleration of the designed virtual master manipulator. Accurate dynamic parameters of manipulators, their acceleration information as well as models of human operator and environment are not required in the control design. Another important feature of our approach is the relaxation for the trade-off between motion and force tracking performances.     

Explicit time‐delay compensation in teleoperation: An adaptive control approach

This paper proposes a control framework that addresses the destabilizing effect of communication time delays and system uncertainties in telerobotics, in the presence of force feedback. Force feedback is necessary to obtain transparency, which is providing the human operator as close a feel as possible of the environment where the slave robot is operating. Achieving stability and providing transparency are conflicting goals. This is the major reason why, currently, a very few, if at all, fully operational force feedback teleoperation devices exist except for research environments. The proposed framework handles system uncertainty with adaptation and communication time delays with explicit delay compensation. The technology that allows this explicit adaptive time‐delay compensation is inspired by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Adaptive Posicast Controller. We provide simulation results that demonstrate stable explicit adaptive delay compensation in a force‐reflecting teleoperation set up. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Force Reflecting Bilateral Control of Master–Slave Systems in Teleoperation

In this paper, a simple structure design with arbitrary motion/force scaling to control teleoperation systems, with model mismatches is presented. The goal of this paper is to achieve transparency in presence of uncertainties. The master–slave systems are approximated by linear dynamic models with perturbed parameters, which is called the model mismatch. Moreover, the time delay in communication channel with uncertainties is considered. The stability analysis will be considered for two cases: (1) stability under time delay uncertainties and (2) stability under model mismatches. For the first case, two local controllers are designed. The first controller is responsible for tracking the master commands, while the second controller is in charge of force tracking as well as guaranteeing stability of the overall closed-loop system. In the second case, an additional term will be added to the control law to provide robustness to the closed-loop system. Moreover, in this case, the local slave controller guarantees the position tracking and the local master controller guarantees stability of the inner closed-loop system. The advantages of the proposed method are two folds: (1) robust stability of the system against model mismatches is guaranteed and (2) structured system uncertainties are well compensated by applying independent controllers to the master and the slave sites. Simulation results show good performance of the proposed method in motion tracking as well force tracking in presence of model mismatches and time delay uncertainties.     

Robustly Stable Adaptive Control of a Tandem of Master–Slave Robotic Manipulators With Force Reflection by Using a Multiestimation Scheme

The problem of controlling a tandem of robotic manipulators composing a teleoperation system with force reflection is addressed in this paper. The final objective of this paper is twofold: 1) to design a robust control law capable of ensuring closed-loop stability for robots with uncertainties and 2) to use the so-obtained control law to improve the tracking of each robot to its corresponding reference model in comparison with previously existing controllers when the slave is interacting with the obstacle. In this way, a multiestimation-based adaptive controller is proposed. Thus, the master robot is able to follow more accurately the constrained motion defined by the slave when interacting with an obstacle than when a single-estimation-based controller is used, improving the transparency property of the teleoperation scheme. The closed-loop stability is guaranteed if a minimum residence time, which might be updated online when unknown, between different controller parameterizations is respected. Furthermore, the analysis of the teleoperation and stability capabilities of the overall scheme is carried out. Finally, some simulation examples showing the working of the multiestimation scheme complete this paper.     

Robustly stable adaptive control of a tandem of master-slave robotic manipulators with force reflection by using a multiestimation scheme.

The problem of controlling a tandem of robotic manipulators composing a teleoperation system with force reflection is addressed in this paper. The final objective of this paper is twofold: 1) to design a robust control law capable of ensuring closed-loop stability for robots with uncertainties and 2) to use the so-obtained control law to improve the tracking of each robot to its corresponding reference model in comparison with previously existing controllers when the slave is interacting with the obstacle. In this way, a multiestimation-based adaptive controller is proposed. Thus, the master robot is able to follow more accurately the constrained motion defined by the slave when interacting with an obstacle than when a single-estimation-based controller is used, improving the transparency property of the teleoperation scheme. The closed-loop stability is guaranteed if a minimum residence time, which might be updated online when unknown, between different controller parameterizations is respected. Furthermore, the analysis of the teleoperation and stability capabilities of the overall scheme is carried out. Finally, some simulation examples showing the working of the multiestimation scheme complete this paper.     

Adaptive controller of a master–slave system for transparent teleoperation

This article presents an adaptive control scheme based on position-force architecture to achieve the stability and transparency for teleoperation in unknown or varying environments. Without any knowledge about the parameters of the slave robot and environment dynamics, the proposed scheme guarantees the robustness to the parameter uncertainties of the master robot as well as the stability of the whole teleoperation system. Numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the transparency and robustness to the parameter uncertainties of the master robot. Experimental results to a master–slave system show the validity of the proposed scheme. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Experimental comparison of backdrivability for time-delayed telerobotics

After stability, transparency is the major goal in teleoperation system design. This transparency goal of the overall system depends on the master/slave manipulator backdrivability. However, time delay in communication channel severely affects the backdrivability of a bilateral teleoperation system in practice. This study investigates the effects of communication delays on the backdrivability of a teleoperation system for wave-variable-based control techniques. The controllers are compared on position and force tracking performance using two identical linear robots coupled via network model that allowed random transmission round-trip delays. Overall, the comparison study reports a deteriorating effect in the system backdrivable performance (i.e., larger position errors and lower fidelity of contact information) from delays. In addition, wave-variable-based controller with position compensation is shown to make better system backdrivability.