Bilateral Teleoperation of Aerial Manipulator with Hybrid Mapping Framework for Physical Interaction

Bilateral teleoperation combines the agility of robotic manipulators with the ability to perform complex contact tasks guided by human expertise, thereby fulfilling a pivotal function in environments beyond human access. However, due to the limited workspace of existing master robots necessitating frequent mapping mode switches, coupled with the pronounced heterogeneity and asymmetry between the workspaces of the master and slave systems, achieving teleoperation of the mobile manipulator remains challenging. In this study, we innovatively introduced a 7 DOFs upper limb exoskeleton as the master control device, rigorously designed to align with the motion coordination of the human arm. Regarding teleoperation mapping, a hybrid heterogeneous teleoperation control framework with a variable mapping scheme, designed for an aerial manipulator performing physical operations, is proposed. The system incorporates mode switching driven by the operator’s hand gestures, seamlessly and intuitively integrating the advantages of position control and rate control modalities to enable adaptive transitions adaptable to diverse task requirements. Comparative teleoperation experiments were conducted using a fully actuated aerial equipped with a compliant 3D end-effector performing physical aerial writing tasks. The mode-switching algorithm was effectively validated in experiments, demonstrating no instability during transitions and achieving a position tracking RMSE of 7.7% and 5.2% in the X,Y-axis, respectively. This approach holds significant potential for future applications in UAM inspection and physical operational scenarios.