Control schemes for teleoperation with time delay: A comparative study

The possibility of operating in remote environments by means of telecontrolled systems has always been considered of relevant interest in robotics. For this reason, in the literature a number of different control schemes has been proposed for telemanipulation systems, based on several criteria such as passivity, compliance, predictive or adaptive control, etc. In each scheme, major concerns have been on one hand the stability, which may constitute a problem especially in presence of time delays in the communication channel, and on the other the so-called transparency of the overall system. This article aims to compare and evaluate the main features and properties of some of the most common control schemes proposed in the literature, firstly presenting the criteria adopted for the comparative study and then illustrating and discussing the results of the comparison. Moreover, some general criteria will be presented for the selection of the control parameters considering that, due to time delay, a tradeoff between stability and performances has to be made in the selection of these parameters. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.