SUMMARYThis paper addresses the adaptive finite-time control problem of nonlinear teleoperation system in the presence of asymmetric time-varying delays. To achieve the finite-time position tracking, a novel adaptive finite-time coordination algorithm based on subsystem decomposition is developed. By introducing a switching-technique-based error filtering into our design framework, the complete closed-loop master (slave) teleoperation system is modeled as a special class of switched system, which is composed of two subsystems. To analyze such system, a finite-time state-independent input-to-output stability criterion is first developed for some normal switched nonlinear delayed systems. Then based on the classical LyapunovKrasovskii method, the stability of complete closed-loop systems is obtained. It is shown that the proposed scheme can make the position errors converge into a deterministic domain in finite time when the robots continuously contact with human operator and/or the environment in the presence of asymmetric time-varying delays. Finally, the simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness.