Control strategy for variable stiffness actuators in belateral teleimpedance interaction tasks

Teleoperated robots featuring impedance control provide a safe and flexible solution for various interaction tasks. Variable stiffness actuators cater to this control strategy with inherent mechanical impedance. This paper presents a strategy for bilateral teleimpedance control of variable stiffness actuators with the primary goal of remotely interacting with an unknown environment. Simulations and experiments on the vsaUT-II validate the control law and a haptic interface is employed to demonstrate full-system closed-loop teleoperation behaviour.