A master six-degree-freedom Force Reflecting Hand Controller ('FRHC') is available at a master site where a received image displays, in essentially real-time, a remote robotic manipulator which is being controlled in the corresponding six-degree-freedom by command signals which are transmitted to the remote site in accordance with the movement of the FRHC at the master site. Software is user-initiated at the master site in order to establish the basic system conditions and then a physical movement of the FRHC in Cartesean space is reflected at the master site by six absolute numbers that are sensed, translated, and computed as a difference signal relative to the earlier position. The change in position is then transmitted in that differential signal form over a high speed synchronized bilateral communication channel which simultaneously returns robot-sensed response information to the master site as forces applied to the FRHC so that the FRHC reflects the 'feel' of what is taking place at the remote site. A system-wide clock rate is selected at a sufficiently high rate that the operator at the master site experiences the Force Reflecting operation in real time.
Synchronized computational architecture for generalized bilateral control of robot arms