Stability Boundary and Design Criteria for Haptic Rendering of Virtual Walls

This paper is about haptic simulations of virtual walls, which are represented by a discrete PD-control. A normalized discrete-time transfer function is used to derive the fundamental stability boundaries for this problem. Hereby, the case of direct action and the more often case of an one sampling step delayed action are addressed. Inside the stable region the set of all parameters was determined that result in real system poles. Furthermore, three dierent design criteria are compared to nd optimum control parameters for the virtual wall. Finally, important conclusions for haptic simulations are derived

Network Representation and Passivity of Delayed Teleoperation Systems

The paper proposes a general network based analysis and design guidelines for teleoperation systems. The electrical domain is appealing because it enjoys proficient analysis and design tools and allows a one step higher abstraction element, the network. Thus, in order to analyze the system by means of network elements the mechanical system must be first modeled as an electric circuit. Only then power ports become apparent and networks can be defined. This kind of analysis has been previously performed in systems with well defined causalities, specially in the communication channel. Indeed, a communication channel exchanging flow-like and effort-like signals, as for instance velocity and computed force, has a well defined causality and can thus be directly mapped as a two-port electrical network. However, this is only one of the many possible system architectures. This paper investigates how other architectures, including those with ambiguous causalities, can be modeled by means of networks, even in the lack of flow or effort being transmitted, and how they can be made passive for any communication channel characteristic (delay, package-loss and jitter). The methods are exposed in the form of design guidelines sustained with an example and validated with experimental results

Ground verification of the feasibility of telepresent on-orbit servicing

In an ideal case telepresence achieves a state in which a human operator can no longer differentiate between an interaction with a real environment and a technical mediated one. This state is called transparent telepresence. The applicability of telepresence to on-orbit servicing (OOS), i.e., an unmanned servicing operation in space, teleoperated from ground in real time, is verified in this paper. For this purpose, a communication test environment was set up on the ground, which involved the Institute of Astronautics (LRT) ground station in Garching, Germany, and the European Space Agency (ESA) ground station in Redu, Belgium. Both were connected via the geostationary ESA data relay satellite ARTEMIS. Utilizing the data relay satellite, a teleoperation was accomplished in which the human operator as well as the (space) teleoperator was located on the ground. The feasibility of telepresent OOS was evaluated, using an OOS test bed at the Institute of Mechatronics and Robotics at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The manipulation task was representative for OOS and supported real-time feedback from the haptic-visual workspace. The tests showed that complex manipulation tasks can be fulfilled by utilizing geostationary data relay satellites. For verifying the feasibility of telepresent OOS, different evaluation methods were used. The properties of the space link were measured and related to subjective perceptions of participants, who had to fulfill manipulation tasks. An evaluation of the transparency of the system, including the data relay satellite, was accomplished as well

Haptics and Telerobotics

In telerobotic systems haptics play an important part from the very beginning in the early fifties. Even in exploration tasks, which are mainly perceived by 3D visual feedback, haptics provide additional information about the material or the surfaces of a remote scene. Manipulating the distant environment requires feedback of interaction forces, though the remote robot has to react on them. For telerobotic systems the ultimate goal is transparency, meaning the human operator cannot distinguish between operating in a local or a distant environment. For the haptic modality this implies research in two main fields: robotic hardware, both handcontroller and tele-robots, and bilateral control with time-delay. With the evolving technology in these research areas telerobotic systems can now be found in a variety of different application fields, e.g. Microassembly, Medicine or Space

Stability Boundary for Haptic Rendering: Influence of Physical Damping.

Physical damping is increasing the z-width of haptic simulations. This paper derives the normalized stability boundaries for physically damped one degree of freedom haptic devices colliding with a virtual wall represented as spring-damper system. These boundaries are independent of the haptic device’s mass and the sampling time. Furthermore, the dependency of the maximum stable virtual stiffness is discussed. Moreover, this paper illustrates that the passive region which is defined by Colgate’s passivity condition is a subset inside the stable region for undelayed systems, but not for delayed systems

Workspace Optimization of the Robocoaster Used as a Motion Simulator

The RoboCoaster is a theme park ride based on a serial chain industrial robot. Apart from its use as an entertainment device it can also be used for motion simulation such as flight or driving simulation. Its joint angle ranges are strictly limited due to safety reasons. In order to provide an appropriate workspace for motion simulation it is necessary to redefine the hardware limits of each joint. In this paper, we discuss the optimization of the robot’s joint angle ranges and present a method to reduce the six-dimensional optimization problem to a two-dimensional one. This method is illustrated using the example of a driving and flight simulator. We managed to expand the workspace significantly and to enhance the range of translational movements by a factor of up to five

Robotics Component Verification on ISS ROKVISS - Preliminary Results for Telepresence.

ROKVISS, Germany’s newest space robotics technology experiment, was successfully installed outside at the Russian Service Module of the International Space Station (ISS) during an extravehicular space walk at the end of January 2005. Since February 2005 a two joint manipulator is operated from ground via a direct radio link. The aim of ROKVISS is the in flight verification of highly integrated modular robotic joints as well as the demonstration of different control modes, reaching from high system autonomy to force feedback teleoperation (telepresence mode). The experiment will be operated for at least one year in free space to evaluate and qualify intelligent light weight robotics components under realistic circumstances for maintenance and repair tasks as foreseen in upcoming manned and unmanned space applications in near future. This paper focuses in the telepresence control mode, its technology and first results from the space experiment ROKVISS