TABLE OF CONTENTS This application reports a new robotic system developed to extend a human's ability to perform smallscale (submillimeter) manipulation tasks requiring human judgement, sensory integration and hand-eye coordination. Our novel approach, which we call "steady-hand" micromanipulation is for tools to be held simultaneously both by the operator's hand and a specially designed robot arm (Fig. 11.73). The robot's controller senses forces exerted by the operator on the tool and by the tool on the environment, and uses this information in various control modes to provide smooth, tremor-free precise positional control and force scaling. The result will be a manipulation system with the precision and sensitivity of a machine, but with the manipulative transparency and immediacy of handheld tools for tasks characterized by compliant or semirigid contacts with the environment. Humans possess superb manual dexterity, visual perception, and other sensory motor capabilities. We manipulate best at a "human scale" dictated by our physical size and manipulation capabilities and roughly corresponding to the tasks routinely performed by our cave man ancestors.
Tasks that require very precise, controlled motions are difficult or impossible for most people. Further, humans work best in tasks that require relative positioning or alignment based on visual or tactile feedback. We do not come equipped with an innate ability to position or fabricate objects accurately relative to arbitrary measuring standards or to perform tasks based on nonhuman sensory feedback. For these...
