Master-slave system

1. A master-slave system having a master robot and a slave robot and being subjected to bilateral control, the master robot being an admittance-type haptic device manipulated by an operator, the slave robot being at least electrically connected to the master robot and having portions at least other than the trunk operating mechanically independent of the master robot, the system comprising:

at least one master actuator for generating a master driving force to position-control the master robot;

at least one slave actuator for generating a slave driving force to control the slave robot in terms of driving force;

at least one master displacement sensor for measuring a master displacement for the master robot;

at least one slave displacement sensor for measuring a slave displacement for the slave robot;

at least one operating force sensor for measuring a master operating force applied to the master robot by the operator;

a master target displacement calculating device for mapping the slave displacement and thereby obtaining a master target displacement which is a target value for the master displacement corresponding to the slave displacement; and

a slave target driving force calculating device for obtaining a slave target driving force which is a target value for the slave driving force, on the basis of the master operating force, wherein,

the slave actuator is adapted to generate the slave driving force on the basis of the slave target driving force, whereas the master actuator is adapted to generate the master driving force on the basis of the master target displacement and the master displacement, thereby:

(1) eliminating the need for a working force sensor adapted for the bilateral control and to measure a slave working force applied to the environment by the slave robot; and

(2) allowing the operator to feel the sense of slave dynamics without feeling the sense of master dynamics, and

the mapping by the master target displacement calculating device is predefined such that a set of master target displacements excludes a singular configuration for the master robot, thereby

(3) allowing a singular configuration problem for both the master robot and the slave robot to be solved in the entire range of movement of the slave robot regardless of whether the slave robot and the master robot have the same structure or different structures.

2. The master-slave system according to claim 1 , wherein,

the master target displacement calculating device obtains the master target displacement corresponding to the slave displacement by calculating inverse kinematics of the master robot in a master joint coordinate system for the master robot, whereby,

the positional control of the master robot by the master actuator is performed in the master joint coordinate system.

3. The master-slave system according to claim 2 , wherein the master robot has a mechanism configured such that the inverse kinematics of the master robot is analytically calculated without requiring numerically iterative convergence calculation.

4. The master-slave system according to claim 3 , wherein,

the master robot has six or less degrees of freedom,

among the six or less degrees of freedom, three consecutive degrees of freedom are permitted by three rotational joints constituting a single serial link mechanism, and

rotation axes of the three rotational joints or extensions thereto cross one another at a point.

5. The master-slave system according to claim 1 , wherein,

the master robot is selected from among a plurality of master robots,

the slave robot is selected from among a plurality of slave robots electrically connectable to any of the master robots, and

the selected master robot and the selected slave robot are electrically connected to each other.