An observer based approach to force reflecting bilateral teleoperation

In this paper, the delay compensation problem is tackled in an observer framework by using three observers: A novel predictor observer (PROB), disturbance observers (DOB) and reaction torque observers (RTOB). The controller for the slave system is placed at the master side, along with the predictor observer and the control input is sent to the remote system through the communication channel. Transparency is achieved using a modified version of the 4-channel architecture. Performance of the proposed method is tested on a pair of 2-DOF pantograph robots with signals exchanged through the internet. The results show that stable and transparent teleoperation is achieved with successful tracking performances of the slave system.