Lyapunov stable teleoperation controllers using passivity analysis

Teleoperated robots are helpful in handling distant objects, and is being increasingly relied upon in nuclear centers, space travel, etc. Control of teleoperated systems are plagued by the trade-off between its two objectives, namely stability and transparency. This paper proposes novel controllers for the master and slave sub-systems of the teleoperation system, in order to simultaneously meet both these performance objectives. Passivity analysis is done to guarantee the stability of the system. The uniqueness of the proposed controllers lies in circumventing the problems of gain tuning. Both simulations and experiments are carried out on a 1-degree of freedom teleoperated system, and the performance objectives are observed to be satisfactorily met.