A method initiates and/or prepares and/or conducts teleoperation by a robotic system for medical or surgical teleoperation. The robotic system includes a master device, which is hand-held, mechanically unconstrained and moveable by an operator, and a slave device including a surgical instrument controlled by the master device. The master device is functionally symmetrical with respect to a predeterminable single, longitudinal axis of the master device. A local reference frame of the master device and the related longitudinal axis is detected, with respect to a main reference frame of the master device workspace; then, functionally equivalent local reference frames are detected. A corresponding target reference frame is mapped in a workspace of the slave device. An operating reference frame is detected according to criteria for optimization of the trajectory of the slave device. A robotic system for medical or surgical teleoperation is control led by the control method.