A master slave manipulator includes a remote manipulation device (100) a slave manipulator (300) and a control unit (200). The remote manipulation device (100) gives a manipulation command corresponding to a plurality of degrees of freedom. The slave manipulator (300) has a plurality of joints corresponding to the plurality of degrees of freedom and a redundant joint is included in the plurality of joints. The control unit (200) controls the operations of the joints in accordance with the manipulation command. The control unit (200) calculates the posture change of the remote manipulation device from the manipulation command and using the posture change selects from among the joints and drives one joint among joints that are in a redundant relationship at predetermined time intervals.
