Enhancement of Robot Position Control for Dual-User Operation of Remote Robot System with Force Feedback

We focus on dual-user operation, where two users control a single remote robot equipped with a force sensor using haptic interface devices. We employ a cooperative work in which the two users control the remote robot to collaborate with remote robot systems with force feedback to carry an object. By measuring the force acting upon the object, we aim to better understand the underlying mechanisms by which the user with lower network latency can help the other user, as observed in our previous work. We notice that with increasing network delays, the force exerted on the object tends to intensify, indicating that it becomes more challenging for users to operate the remote robot effectively as network delays increase. We also measure the force applied to the object by changing the network delays between the remote robot and the two users to clarify why the user with the lower network delay can assist the other user. We find that when the total network delay is the same, the average force magnitude and the average maximum force magnitude remain nearly identical. This is because, despite the challenges faced by the user with the larger network delay, the user with the smaller delay can operate the remote robot more easily and assist the other user. In order to reduce the force acting upon the object, we propose an enhancement method for the robot position control, which determines the position of the remote robot arm while accounting for network delay, and investigate the effects by experiment. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method is effective and can reduce the applied force. This is because the proposed method adjusts the ratio between the user with the lower delay and the user with the higher delay. The user with the lower delay can operate the remote robot more easily and respond to it more quickly. Our findings and proposed method can be useful in improving work accuracy and operability when designing a remote robot system with force feedback for applications.