Bilateral force feedback for hydraulically actuated systems

Abstract

This thesis report discusses the design, construction, and experimentation of force feedback in one and two degrees of freedom, hydraulically actuated systems. A master hydraulic unit .is used to positionally control a remotely located slave hydraulic unit. An obstruction in the path of the slave unit is used as a force control to the master unit, reducing the power assist to the operator. An analysis was conducted to predict the performance and stability of the system for various amplifier gain settings. One and two degrees of freedom models were constructed to verify the analysis and to physically observe the force feedback.