Energy-tank based TDPC for a haptic setup

There is a turning point in society in which robotic avatar technology is becoming increasingly popular. Robotic avatars are a kind of robot which can be controlled from afar. This has many different applications in, for example, healthcare or education. However, at the time, robotic avatar technology is not yet accessible to everyone. To change this, avatar.report, a trend-watching and knowledge authority on robotic avatars [3], aims to provide online pencasts explaining robotic avatars.

Additionally, avatar.report connects these pencasts to an affordable DIY home kit focused on telemanipulation. However, parts of the controller still need to be created for this DIY home kit. One of these parts is the Time-Domain Passivity Control (TDPC). TDPC tackles a highly significant problem in a haptic interface design; namely, instability caused by time-delays [1] A telemanipulation system consists of two main systems: a master system and a slave system, each consisting of a physical device and a corresponding controller. These systems are each located in a different place; therefore, the communication between them has a certain amount of time delay. This delay is further reinforced by factors such as signal processing or network congestion’s [2]. Time delays can result in a distorted perception for the user and additionally, it can cause energy generation within the system. If this energy generation is left uncontrolled, the system becomes unstable, resulting in decreased transparency and safety issues [3]. To counteract this issue, a TDPC can be used to maintain passivity in the system. Passivity refers to having no uncontrolled energy generation within the system.

For this bachelor assignment, I will design a TDPC for the DIY home kit by integrating the energy tank-based method.
My research question is: How can the energy-tank based method be integrated into the DIY telemanipulation controller kit to maintain system stability by counteracting the adverse effects of time delays? The software behind the TDPC must be understandable to the user of the DIY home kit such that the user can learn from the experience of working with the software. Therefore, several sub-goals are created:
• The software should be user-friendly such that it can be used with minimal prior knowledge.
• The software should be ready to use and well-documented.
• The software should be directly connected to the online pencasts of avatar.report such that it is easily understandable.

REFERENCES
[1] B. Hannaford and J.-H. Ryu, “Time-domain passivity control of haptic interfaces,” Robotics and Automation, IEEE Transactions on,
vol. 18, pp. 1–10, Mar. 2002. DOI: 10.1109/70.988969.
[2] M. Franken, S. Stramigioli, S. Misra, C. Secchi, and A. Macchelli, “Bilateral telemanipulation with time delays: A two-layer approach
combining passivity and transparency,” Robotics, IEEE Transactions on, pp. 741–756, Sep. 2011. DOI: 10.1109/TRO.2011.2142430.
[3] “Avatar robotics; explained,” Avatars Report. (), [Online]. Available: https://avatars.report/ (visited on 04/07/2024).