Development of Multi-D.O.F. Master-Slave Arm with Bilateral Impedance Control for Telexistence

We developed the robotic arm for a master-slave system to support “mutual telexistence,” which realizes close physical communication with other people using gestures and remote dexterous manipulation tasks. In this paper, we describe the specifications of the experimental setup of the master-slave arm for demonstration of the feasibility of the mutual telexistence concept. We developed the master arm of a telexistence robot for interpersonal communication. To facilitate smooth gestures of the operator, this arm has 6-degree-offreedom structures to free the operator's elbow. The last degree of the 7-degree-of-freedom slave arm is resolved by placing a small orientation sensor on the operator’s arm. Moreover, this master arm is made light and impedance control is applied in order to grant the operator as much freedom of movement as possible.