A Shared Autonomy Reconfigurable Control Framework for Telemanipulation of Multi-Arm Systems

Abstract

Teleoperation is a widely adopted strategy to control robotic manipulators executing complex tasks that require highly dexterous movements and critical high-level intelligence. Classical teleoperation schemes are based on either joystick control, or on more intuitive interfaces which map directly the user arm motions into one robot arm's motions. These approaches have limits when the execution of a given task requires reconfigurable multiple robotic arm systems. Indeed, the simultaneous teleoperation of two or more robot arms could extend the workspace of the manipulation cell, or increase its total payload, or afford other advantages. In different phases of a reconfigurable multi-arm system, each robot could act as an independent arm, or as one of a pair of cooperating arms, or as one of the fingers of a virtual, large robot hand. This manuscript proposes a novel telemanipulation framework that enables both the individual and combined control of any number of robotic arms. Thanks to the designed control architecture, the human operator can intuitively choose the proposed control modalities and the manipulators that make the task convenient to execute through the user interface. Moreover, through the tele-impedance paradigm, the system can address complex tasks that require physical interaction by letting the robot mimic the arm impedance and position references of the human operator. The proposed framework is validated with 8 subjects controlling 4 Franka Emika Panda robots with 7-DoFs to execute a telemanipulation task. Qualitative results of the experiments show us the promising applicability of our framework.

Design and Quantitative Assessment of Teleoperation-Based Human–Robot Collaboration Method for Robot-Assisted Sonography

“…For the redundant manipulator, the null space can be used to achieve other purposes, such as obstacle avoidance, singularity avoidance, and orientation constraints, etc. τ cs = H T p (q)τ ns (14) where τ cs ∈ R n is the control torque for the second tasks, and H T p (q) represents the null space projector. Because the τ cs only works in the null space, this control torque will not interface with the main control torque τ c in Eq.…”

“…Teleoperation is a well-established research area that has been the subject of numerous theoretical and experimental studies since the 1950s [14]. This approach has proven particularly effective in controlling robotic manipulators performing complex tasks that require dexterous manipulation and highlevel intelligence.…”

“…This approach has proven particularly effective in controlling robotic manipulators performing complex tasks that require dexterous manipulation and highlevel intelligence. For example, the authors propose a novel tele-manipulation scheme that enables both the individual and combined control of any number of robotic arms [14]. The combination of human intelligence and experience with robot autonomy makes teleoperation an effective approach for performing a variety of dexterous tasks, including medical examination and robot-assisted healthcare, etc.…”