Virtual Constraint Force Control for Teleoperation System of Live-Power Line Maintenance

In order to reduce the risk of the human operator in live-power line maintenance while performing the maintenance tasks accurately and efficiently, a virtual constraint force control strategy for robotic teleoperation system is proposed. The virtual constraint force is generated by the virtual spring which is feedback to the operator’s hand by the master. The motion of the operator's hand can be constrained within the desired range near the target point and meanwhile, the human operator can have the sense of touch from the slave. The proposed control strategy is verified by three experiments on live-power line maintenance tasks including clamping porcelain insulator pin, clamping drop-out fuse insurance, and clamping object on overhead wires. The results show that compared to the traditional method, the proposed control strategy can save the task execution time of live-power line maintenance, reduce the position tracking error between the master and the slave and improve the stability of the system.