Abstract
In a master-slave system, the force feedback from the slave robot improves a dexterous motion of operator′s work. When the slave robot is not in touch with its surroundings, the operator cannot get force information and cannot realize the slave motion efficiently. However, sensitive information to know the slave motion under the non contact motion is needed in the case that it is dangerous to run into a target. To address this issue, this paper proposes a strategy to produce virtual force according to the slave motion and generated force is fed back to the master robot. The proposed approach utilizes visual information from the camera mounted on the end effecter of the slave robot, and creates virtual force on the image plane. The change of the virtual force makes it possible for operator to feel the slave motion as the end effecter is coming close to the target. This is one of the remarkable features of the proposed strategy.
