Within telerobotics, the goal is to execute tasks remotely with a robotic system. A human operator should control the robotic system at the remote site. To execute the tasks as effectively as possible the operator should be provided with visual and force feedback. In an ideal situation, perfect transparency will be achieved.
To achieve this ideal situation research is done regarding tele-impedance control, which should allow the operator to change the impedance of the robot arm at the remote site. Currently, this is done by normalizing surface EMG signals from a single muscle co-contraction pair in the forearm and using those to linear scale the endpoint stiffness between a lower and upper limit. However, this does not contain any information about the actual endpoint stiffness of the human arm.
To make the robot arm feel more like a natural extension of the human arm, it should also mimic the endpoint impedance of the human arm. This research is focused on that principle. A controller is developed, which is able to calculate the human arm endpoint stiffness by measuring surface EMG signals from the human arm and determining the posture of the arm. This data is obtained using two Myo armbands, one around the arm and the other around the forearm. The resulting endpoint stiffness is different in x,y and z-direction.
To compare the two controllers a user study is done. From the user study results, it followed that the newly designed controller shows promising results regarding comfort, prediction, precision, and consistency.
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