A novel shared control architecture is presented for dual-user haptic training simulation systems for enhanced interaction between the users and between each user and the virtual environment. The coupled stability of the proposed control architecture against uncertainties in the environment and the user's dynamics is investigated using the three-port master-slave network model of the dual-user haptic simulation system. For this purpose, Llewellyn's unconditional stability criterion is applied to an equivalent two-port network model obtained from the corresponding three-port network, considering the environment as a load termination. The kinesthetic performance of the proposed architecture is numerically analyzed for transparency and evaluated against a benchmark control architecture under different operating conditions, such as various types of environments, users' grasps, and levels of dominance of users over the task. An experimental user study is carried out to assess the effectiveness of the proposed architecture in terms of users' perception of environment stiffness sensing, device agility, and haptic guidance reception.

No abstract

This paper proposes a novel four-channel multilateral shared control architecture for dual-user teleoperation systems. The proposed control architecture is designed to allow interaction between two users as well as slave and environment through a dominance factor. The dominance factor adjusts the authority of the users over the slave robot and the task. To analyze transparency performance in dual-user systems, a number of performance measures are examined or proposed. These measures are evaluated for various types of environments, users' grasps, and levels of dominance of the users over the task.

No abstract