Development of a Bilateral Control Teleoperation System for Bipedal Humanoid Robot Utilizing Foot Sole Haptics Feedback

Teleoperating bipedal humanoid robots presents unique challenges, including decreased stability and reduced operator presence. This paper addresses these challenges by proposing a method that leverages the operator's inherent sense of stability by feedback from a sole haptics display to operate a bipedal humanoid robot. We developed a bilateral control system that integrates a device replicating sole haptics feedback and provides the operator with feedback on changes in the robot’s center of gravity. We conducted operating experiments in the forward-backward direction to evaluate its effectiveness and investigate the effectiveness of sole haptics on robot operation. The results demonstrate that operating with both vision and sole haptics feedback significantly reduces the robot's fall rate by over 56% when disturbances are applied, compared to using only vision feedback. Moreover, operators reported a 21% higher sense of presence with both vision and sole haptics feedback compared to using only vision feedback.