On-line master/slave robot system synchronization with obstacle avoidance

Abstract

In this work, it is proposed a controller for the synchronization of master/slave robotic systems. The aim of the proposed controller is to provide autonomy to the slave robot, via obstacle avoidance capability. The controller includes two terms. The first term is a PID controller, which is mapped through the task Jacobian from the task space to the robot joint space. The second term is the on-line solution of an optimal control problem (OCP), which considers the dynamic model of the slave robot. The performance index of the OCP pursues three objectives. The first goal is synchronization of master/slave end-effector position. The second goal is to keep the joint positions of the slave robot within feasible limits. The third goal is the obstacle avoidance of the whole arm at the slave robot side. Experimental results show the effectiveness of our proposal when tested on a writing task.