Reach out and touch someone: controlling haptic manipulators near and far

Abstract

Robotic devices now commonly interact physically with humans. Control issues surrounding this constraint are discussed and several approaches are considered. Examined in detail is the use of energetically passive designs, especially of the dissipative variety. Three different control algorithms are introduced and compared in their ability to guide a human user along a desired path in a rapid fashion. Physical measurements are correlated with user opinion. Other human-computer issues that are introduced in this paper are time delay for force reflective manipulation haptics for equipment operation and a robotic surface with many degrees of freedom.