A seven axis haptic device, called the Freedom-7, is described in relation to its application to surgical training. The generality of its concept makes it also relevant to most other haptic applications. The design rationale is driven by a long list of requirements since such a device is meant to interact with the human hand: uniform response, balanced inertial properties, static balancing, low inertia, high frequency response, high resolution, low friction, arbitrary reorientation, and low visual intrusion. Some basic performance figures are also reported.

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Aimed at achieving ultrahigh control performance for high-end applications of harmonic drives, an adaptive control algorithm using additional sensing, namely, the joint and motor positions and the joint torque, and their practically available time derivatives, is proposed. The proposed adaptive controller compensates the large friction associated with harmonic drives, while incorporating the dynamics of flexspline. The L2∕L∞ stability and the L2 gain-induced H∞ stability are guaranteed in both joint torque and joint position control modes. Conditions for achieving asymptotic stability are also given. The proposed joint controller can be efficiently incorporated into any robot motion control system based on either its torque control interface or the virtual decomposition control approach. Experimental results demonstrated in both the time and frequency domains confirm the superior control performance achieved not only in individual joint motion, but also in coordinated motion of an entire robot manipulator.

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