Principles of Steerability for Dissipative Passive Haptic Interfaces

Abstract

This research focuses on the control limitation brought by brakes, one type of dissipative passive actuators on planar passive haptic interfaces. The concept of steerability is defined based on the force generation analysis to identify the limitation. Passive steerability angle is defined to quantify steerability. Two-sided steerability is required for a planar robot to redirect motion to both left and right of the current velocity. A non-redundant 2R manipulator does not have two-sided steerability at all situations. Redundancy brought by serial or parallel structures could improve the manipulator’s steerability. The steerability theorem was developed to determine two-sided steerability for a multi-joint manipulator.