Author(s)

Ehsan Kamrani

Electrical Engineering Department, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Montreal, Canada.

Internet-based teleoperation employs robots and internet a two breakthrough technologies to manipulate robots from distance for different applications. Variable and unknown time delay dynamics of internet is the main obstacle for realtime teleoperation via internet. In this paper the internet delay dynamics and its characteristics have been studied based on the measurement in different nodes. Then a black-box model for end-to-end internet delay dynamics has been developed using system identification and Auto-Regressive eXogeneous (ARX) model. Our experimental studies show a regular periodic behaviour in long-term intervals of internet delay variation and also confirm the accuracy and reliability of our theoretical and modelling derivations. This paper also introduces a novel multivariable control method for real-time telerobotic operations via Internet. Random communications delay of the Internet can cause instability in realtime closed-loop telerobotic systems. When a single identification model is used, it will have to adapt itself to the operating condition before an appropriate control mechanism can be applied. Slow adaptation may result in a large transient error. As an alternative, we propose to use a Multiple Model framework. The control strategy is to determine the best model for the current operating condition and activate the corresponding controller. We propose the use of Multi-Model Adaptive Control Theory and Multivariable Wave prediction method to capture the concurrency and complexity of Internet-based teleoperation. The results confirm the efficiency of the proposed technique in dealing with constant and variable delay dynamics of internet.

Teleoperation; Delay Dynamic; Internet; Modelling and Simulation; Wave Prediction; Robot Control

E. Kamrani, "Real-Time Internet-Based Teleoperation," Intelligent Control and Automation, Vol. 3 No. 4, 2012, pp. 356-375. doi: 10.4236/ica.2012.34041.