Measurement of human arm impedance using the human arm posture

Abstract

In a tele-operation system, the work efficiency can be improved by altering the impedance of a slave robot in accordance with the characteristics of the work. The impedance intended by an operator should be measured because the impedance of a slave robot should reflect the intention of the operator. Besides, the measured impedance should be obliged to include the information of its value and direction. In this paper, the method of using a single-axis force sensor as well as the posture of an operator is proposed so as to measure the value and direction of the impedance intended by the operator. Also, the proposed method is applied to Phantom that is widely used in tele-operation systems to validate its usefulness.