Abstract
For the teleoperation of force controlled space robots in orbit by a human operator on the ground, communication time delay becomes a difficult problem. In this paper, to solve this problem, a new teleoperation control scheme is proposed. In this scheme, the robot has two control modes: velocity and force control modes, either of which is selected automatically according to contact conditions between the robot and its environments. The coefficient that converts the force command into the velocity command is decided based on the analysis of the optimal approach velocity. Since the both control modes are implemented by an on-board computer in orbit, no force reflection to the human operator is needed even in the force control mode. Moreover, to aid the operator's 3 D visual perception, it is proposed to use a virtual beam which is generated by a ground computer using a geometrical model. With this aid, operation in the velocity control mode is improved.
