• control exoskeleton
• hand
• robotics
• teleoperation
• time-domain passivity
• under-actuation

The author designs and implements the bilateral teleoperation architecture between an underactuated hand exoskeleton and a robotic anthropomorphic hand. The system is part of a more complex platform, called \textit{Centauro}, that comprehends a \textit{centauro}morphic robot designed to help rescue personnel in disaster scenarios such as an earthquake. A preexistent rehabilitation hand exoskeleton is adapted to accomplish teleoperation requirements. Firstly, it is proposed a kinematic mapping between the operator hand and the remote manipulator. Besides, it was developed an online calibration procedure of all human-dependent kinematic parameters. Signals acquisition and force control logic are embedded into a Cortex M4-based custom electronic shield that is cased on the exoskeleton itself. Next, a distributed software architecture based on ROS middleware was designed. In particular, application independent exoskeleton drivers were developed on Matlab Simulink platform. The author focus on optimising all factors that guarantee the teleoperation stability. In this context, particular attention was given to time domain passivity solutions. The optimisation of all critic factors drives all the hardware and the software design choices. Finally, for each system requirement, a validation procedure is proposed and performed. All tests confirm the device capabilities and robustness.