To enhance transparency of a piezo-actuated tele-micromanipulator using passive bilateral control

This paper presents the research work on a 1 degree of freedom (DOF) force reflecting tele-micromanipulation system. This system enables a human operator to position remote objects very precisely having haptic feedback. The slave robot is a nano-positioning piezo-actuator with hysteretic dynamics. This intrinsic nonlinearity results in positioning inaccuracy and instability. Hence, a LuGre friction model is employed to model and compensate for this undesirable behavior. By means of a transformation, the 2-DOF master–slave system (1-DOF each) is decomposed into two 1-DOF new systems: the shape system, representing the master–slave position coordination, and the locked system, representing dynamics of the coordinated system. A key innovation of this paper is to generalize this approach to the hysteresis-type nonlinear teleoperated systems. For the shape system, a position tracking controller is designed in order to achieve position coordination. This position coordination is guaranteed not only in free space motion, but also during contact at the slave side. Furthermore, a force tracking controller is designed for the locked system in order to achieve tracking of the force exerted on the master and slave robots. Using this force controller, transparency is remarkably enhanced. Based on the virtual flywheels concept, passivity of the closed-loop teleoperator is guaranteed against dynamic parameter uncertainties and force measurement inaccuracies. The simulation and experimental results verify the capability of the proposed control architectures in achieving high-level tracking of the position and force signals while the system remains stable.