Model-Mediated Teleoperation for multi-operator multi-robot systems

Knowledge about the remote environment can be used in the control law to improve robustness and fidelity of haptic teleoperation systems. Model-mediated teleoperation adopts this idea by rendering an estimated model of the remote environment on local site instead of transmitting force/velocity flows. In this paper, we extend the original model-mediated teleoperation approach to multi-operator multi-robot teleoperation systems. A theoretic robustness and fidelity analysis is conducted. The theoretical results show a superior performance of the proposed method compared to a classic bilateral approach. Experimental results confirm the practical efficiency of the presented approach.