THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GENERAL MASTER ARM FOR TELEOPERATION CONSIDERINGITS ROLE AS A MAN-MACHINE INTERFACE

Master arm design is one of the most important issues in improving the maneuverability of master-slave manipulators. Though various types of master arm for teleoperation have been developed, no design criteria have been proposed for master arms as the man-machine interface and th ere are no compact master arms suitable for general use. In this paper , we discuss design criteria for a general master arm and present a ne w orthogonal type of master arm based on a pair of pantograph mechanis ms that we have developed. This master arm is light in weight and comp act, and the ergonomic switch layout on the grip was determined accord ing to operational ease of use. The dynamic characteristics of this me chanism have been evaluated using generalized inertia tensor ellipsoid s and good maneuverability has been confirmed in basic experiments.