Teleoperation is the remote control of robot manipulators. Although commands can be sent from user to remote robot at different levels of abstraction, this section describes a kind of low-level teleoperation in which the human directly controls the motions and contact forces of the remote manipulator in real time. Perhaps the most common application of this technique is in construction equipment such as excavators in which the operator controls the velocity of the joints of the "robot" to accomplish the task. However construction equipment does not provide force feedback directly to the hand. When the user is located farther from the remote robot, considerable engineering effort must be applied to reproduce the sensory feedback information which allows accurate and efficient control.
Both teleoperation and virtual environments require this rich and self-consistent sensory feedback. Haptic feedback devices were pioneered in teleoperation systems as far back as the 1940's. In both teleoperation and virtual environment applications of haptics, a loop is closed between the human operator's motion "inputs" and forces applied by the haptic device. In teleoperation this loop is closed via a communication link, robot manipulator, and the environment. In virtual environments, the loop is closed via a computer simulation.
Key issues for the advancement of teleoperation technology include:

Performance Evaluation: What quantitative measures can be developed with which to quantify the quality of a teleoperation system (including haptic displays)?
Control: How can stable, high performance, control be obtained in spite of highly variable human operator and environment dynamics, time delays in communication channel, and kinematic effects such as singularities?
Scaling: What are the requirements for effective user interfaces when there is a large difference in scale (either up or down) between the master (human operator) and slave (remote robot)?

Mechanization: High quality teleoperation and haptic interaction depends critically on advanced mechanism designs for both master and slave sides. Key issues are light stiff structures and linkages, actuators with high torque/mass ratios and high linearity, compact, high resolution sensors for position velocity and force/torque.
Kinematics of Teleoperation: How can effective use be made of redundant degrees of freedom in teleoperation systems (i.e. when the number of slave DOF > number of master DOF)?