The Feasibility of Force Control Over the Internet

Abstract

This paper describes the challenges requiring to be overcome in order to be able to utilize the Internet as a medium to provide intelligible force feedback for Tele-robotic systems. Presently there are several devices that can now be controlled over the Internet from previous work by others. It is possible that an expansion of this concept to include force feedback could ultimately lead to remote medical operations (Tele-Surgery) utilizing the Internet as the transport. Successful implementation even in its most rudimentary form could potentially provide much more rapid and expert life saving patient care during the first hour after injury. This time is known within the medical circles as the “Golden Hour”. This paper discusses initial work being performed to investigate the relevance and practicality of the Internet to support intelligible force control of Telerobotic systems. A review of current Internet Telerobotic equipment followed by new approaches and experimental work is presented.