Time Domain Passivity Based Teleoperation Applying Bounded Output Controllers

This paper addresses the problem of stable bilateral teleoperation in the presence of communication delay by taking into consideration that the outputs of the controllers, which are applied to guarantee the passivity of the teleoperator, are bounded. The velocity and force signals in a teleoperation system are bounded due to the actuator saturation or artificial bounds can also be introduced for the safety and convenience of the human operator. The problem is treated in the time domain passivity approach. It is shown that the passivity of the bilateral teleoperation can be guaranteed with bounded control signals if the force and velocity signals that are sent over the communication channels are also bounded. Real-time experimental measurements were performed to demonstrate the efficiency of the presented method.