This article presents a reduced order indirect self-tuning regulator for a passive pneumatic tele-operation system, which is intended for use in medical surgeries in magnetic resonance imaging environments with short transmission distances ([Formula: see text]), where force feedback is required. The novel tele-operation system uses less active components as compared to conventional systems and realizes a bilateral control without the use of a force or pressure sensor. The proposed adaptive control system is validated in simulation and experimentation on a test rig built for this purpose. Special attention is given to the notion of transparency of the system, which is the ratio between the resistance of the master device experienced by the operator and the actual resistance of the remote environment in contact with the slave device. The adaptive controller shows advantage over a previously designed non-adaptive control system design in terms of stiffness, damping, and transparency.
