A Force-Reflecting Mobile Telepresence System Control Issues and Experimental Evaluation*

This paper gives an overview of control issues of a force-reflecting mobile telepresence system, comprising a mobile haptic user interface and a mobile teleoperator. The system enables a user to walk about freely while interacting intuitively with a spacious but inaccessible remote environment. While the mobile user interface closely follows the user, the motion of the teleoperator is replicating the user's locomotion. Thus an unrestricted workspace for remote haptic interaction is achieved. Besides introducing the basic features of the mobile telepresence system, this article focuses the three level control architecture chosen and a novel scheme for position control of the nonholonomic wheel-based platforms, forming the base of both, the user interface and the teleoperator. Results of an experimental evaluation demonstrate merits and current limitations of the proposed force-reflecting telepresence approach.