Haptic-Based Teleoperation of Robots

Abstract

This thesis has been developed at Tekniker, a technological research center located in the Basque Country, as part of the Autopilot project, which is focused on designing a robotic system to assist in surgical applications. The objective is to enable safe and intuitive teleoperation through a combination of force feedback and precise motion control. The work presents the development and implementation of a bilateral robot teleoperation system with haptic feedback using a PLC-based external control architecture. The system integrates key components such as a robotic manipulator, a simulated haptic device (Omega.7), force sensing, and real-time communication. A non-deterministic communication protocol (ADS and UDP) is used to enable data exchange between the haptic device and the robot controller via a PLC. The first milestone was the successful teleoperation of the robot using the haptic device simulation as a master interface, enabling smooth and accurate control of the slave manipulator. Once this was achieved, the integration of force feedback was addressed to close the bilateral control loop. Experimental results confirmed that force data is correctly acquired, processed, and scaled to provide realistic haptic sensations to the operator. Communication latency was identified as a critical factor affecting system stability and was successfully mitigated through protocol optimization and task scheduling. The overall system proved to be robust, modular, and adaptable. The architecture is fully prepared for the integration of the physical Omega.7 device and is intended to be tested in realistic environments in future work, with potential applications in areas such as surgical simulation or remote robotic manipulation