This thesis is part of the participation of RaM group in the ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition. The goal of the competition is to set up a telerobotics system that enables the operator to feel a remote environment and possibly interact with other people remotely. One of the interaction types is social interaction in which the operator shakes hands with another person in a way that the handshake partners feel the presence of each other. The latter interaction type, remote handshake, is the topic of this thesis. Therefore, an experimental apparatus was set up consisting of two 6-DOF robot arms and two EMG sensors, variable-stiffness bilateral interaction control was implemented enabling to apply different force feedback on the local and remote robot arms which makes the handshake partners feel the presence of each other, and finally, the user experience of eleven participants was evaluated.
The obtained results show that by using the variable-stiffness control method, it is feasible to have a robot system that enables two persons to feel the presence of each other. In addition to that, the user experience evaluation shows that shaking hands remotely is sufficiently engaging and exciting as the real direct handshake between two persons and that the remote handshake provides the user with social positivity. However, the robot system was not so responsive to the user because of the relatively high perceived weight of the robot arm. Also, robot hands were not part of the system which might have slightly influenced the user experience.
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