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Bilateral teleoperation systems have attracted significant attention in the last decade mainly because of technological advancements in both the communication channel and computers performance. In addition, non-linear multi-degree-of-freedom bilateral teleoperators along with state observers have become an open research area. In this article, a model-free exact differentiator is used to estimate the full state along with a chattering-free second-order sliding mode controller to guarantee a robust impedance tracking under both constant and an unknown time delay of non-linear multi-degree-of-freedom robots. The robustness of the proposed controller is improved by introducing a change of coordinates in terms of a new nominal reference similar to that used in adaptive control theory. Experimental results that validate the predicted behaviour are presented and discussed using a Phantom Premium 1.0 as the master robot and a Catalyst-5 virtual model as the slave robot. The dynamics of the Catalyst-5 system is solved online.

Transparency has been a major objective in bilateral teleoperation systems, even in the absence of time delay induced by the communication channel, since a high degree of transparency would allow humans to drive the remote teleoperator as if he or she were directly interacting with the remote environment, with the remote teleoperator as a physical and sensorial extension of the operator. When fast convergence of position and force tracking errors are ensured by the control system, then complete transparency is obtained, which would ideally guarantee humans to be tightly kinaesthetically coupled. In this paper a model-free Cartesian second order sliding mode (SOSM) PD control scheme for nonlinear master-slave systems is presented. The proposed scheme does not rely on velocity measurements and attains very fast convergence of position trajectories, with bounded tracking of force trajectories, rendering a high degree of transparency with lesser knowledge of the system. The degree of transparency can easily be improved by tuning a feedback gain in the force loop. A unique energy storage function is introduced; such that a similar Cartesian-based controller is implemented in the master and slave sides. The resulting properties of the Cartesian control structure allows the human operator to input directly Cartesian variables, which makes clearer the kinaesthetic coupling, thus the proposed controller becomes a suitable candidate for practical implementation. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated in a semi-experimental setup.