Force control is a central requirement if robot arms are to use tools or interact with workpieces in an unstructured environment. This chapter concentrates on a form of force control called active compliance control. Experimental results are presented to illustrate the difficulties encountered when designing such a force controller on a practical robot. A new theorem on the stability of such a controller is also proved. The paradigm considered is the use of tele-robots' arms which are operated under human supervision while carrying out complex tasks. The application area considered is nuclear decommissioning but the technology is widely applicable to such diverse activities as bomb disposal and the 'virtual reality' simulators of drug interactions.

Inspec keywords: telerobotics; dexterous manipulators; control system synthesis; force feedback; force control; industrial manipulators

Other keywords: active compliance control; virtual reality simulator; nuclear decommissioning; force feedback control; bomb disposal; drug interaction; force controller design; telerobotic arm

Subjects: Manipulators