| This dissertation presents the development of an architecture and methodology for multivariable bilateral telemanipulation. The methodology applies multivariable tools in both the design of the teleoperation controller and the assessment of the loop's transparency and stability robustness. The approach utilizes impedance control of the master and slave manipulators in order to account for the exhibited coupling and nonlinearities, and frequency-domain multivariable design tools to address loop-shaping of the teleoperative transparency and stability robustness. The multivariable transparency is measured using singular values, and the stability robustness is directly determined based on the power output to the human operator by the telemanipulator under varying operating conditions. The methodology is experimentally demonstrated on a three degree-of-freedom scaled telemanipulator, and shown to provide improvements of a factor of 2 in stability and a factor of 2.8 in performance of the telemanipulator pair. |
