Novel Cooperative Teleoperation Framework: Multi-Master/Single-Slave System

In this paper, a novel multi-master/single-slave (MM/SS) teleoperated framework is proposed. The desired objectives for the MM/SS system are presented in such a way that both cooperative and training applications, e.g., surgical teleoperation and surgical training, can benefit. Passivity of the system is investigated, and it is shown that an ideal MM/SS system, depending on its structure, may not always be passive unlike a conventional SM/SS system. An impedance-based control methodology is developed to satisfy the desired objectives of the MM/SS system in the presence of communication delays. The small-gain theorem is used to analyze the closed-loop stability, deriving a sufficient condition to guarantee system stability in the presence of time delays. Experimental results conducted on an MM/SS system are presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed methodology.