Tendon-based haptic master device mechanism design for underwater manipulation

Underwater manipulation is difficult to completely automate the manipulator movement due to the nature of the work environment, and it is essential to operate the manipulator through a planar view through the camera, so that a master device capable of intuitive manipulation is essential. In this paper, we propose a tendon-based haptic master device for intuitive manipulation of commercial underwater manipulators and perform instrument design. We have optimized the master arm and button layout for the manipulation of 7 degrees of freedom underwater manipulator and proposed a small tendon drive module which can measure force to apply haptic feedback to all joints and can easily change the stiffness and output. The prototype was fabricated and the simulator and actual manipulator manipulation test were performed to verify the design.