A remote handling rate-position controller for telemanipulating in a large workspace

This paper presents a new haptic rate-position controller, which allows manipulating a slave robot in a large workspace using a small haptic device. This control algorithm is very effective when the master device is much smaller than the slave device. Haptic information is displayed to the user so as to be informed when a change in the operation mode occurs. This controller allows performing tasks in a large remote workspace by using a haptic device with a reduced workspace such as Phantom. Experimental results have been carried out using a slave robot from Kraft Telerobotics and a commercial haptic interface as a master device. A curvature path following task has been simulated using the proposed controller which was compared with the force-position control algorithm. Results obtained show that higher accuracy is obtained when the proposed method is used, spending a similar amount of time to perform the task.