Construction and demonstration of a 9-string 6 DOF force reflecting joystick for telerobotics

Confrontation with difficult manipulation tasks in hostile environments such as space, has led to the development of means to transport the human's senses, skills and cognition to the remote site. The use of advanced Telerobotics to achieve this goal is examined. A novel and universal hand controller based on a fully parallel mechanical architecture is discussed. The design and implementation of this 6 DOF force reflecting joystick is shown in relationship to the general philosophy of achieving telepresence in a man-machine system.