Robust Immersive Bilateral Teleoperation of Beyond-Human-Scale Systems with Enhanced Transparency and Sense of Embodiment

Mahdi Hejrati; Pauli Mustalahti; Jouni Mattila

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arXiv · 2505.14486

Robust Immersive Bilateral Teleoperation of Beyond-Human-Scale Systems with Enhanced Transparency and Sense of Embodiment

Mahdi Hejrati·Pauli Mustalahti·Jouni Mattila

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Abstract

This paper presents an immersive bilateral teleoperation framework for beyond-human-scale manipulators, combining motion/force transparency with enhanced operator embodiment through virtual reality (VR) and distributed haptic feedback. The platform integrates a full-scale industrial hydraulic manipulator, a 7-DoF haptic exoskeleton, and head-tracked visual feedback to reinforce operator agency and self-location. A force-sensorless adaptive controller incorporates an augmented human-robot dynamic model to address master-surrogate asymmetries, input nonlinearities, model uncertainties, and communication delays. Rigorous analysis establishes semi-global uniform ultimate boundedness of the closed-loop system. Extensive full-scale experiments demonstrate precise motion and force tracking with scaling up to 1:13 and 1:1000, respectively, and fixed or time-varying delays up to 150 ms. Coordinated 6-DoF pick-and-place and multi-axis contact tasks further validate system performance. A ten-participant user study supports system usability and indicates approximately 50% higher normalized embodiment scores with VR than with monitor-based feedback. These results advance intuitive, force-reflected remote manipulation at industrial scale.

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Mahdi Hejrati, Pauli Mustalahti, Jouni Mattila. 2026-09-07. Robust Immersive Bilateral Teleoperation of Beyond-Human-Scale Systems with Enhanced Transparency and Sense of Embodiment. https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.14486

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