Sensitivity Analysis of Model-based Impedance Control for Physically Interactive Hexarotor

Abstract This paper presents a model-based control approach for a tilted hexarotor with the purpose of controlling its mechanical impedance without requiring any force feedback. Based on the system model acquired with Lagrange formalism, an impedance based control approach is presented without requiring any force or torque feedback. The hexarotor is validated to behave as a damped mass-spring system in the simulation. The sensitivity of the proposed control is analyzed by evaluating the closed loop dynamics in terms of changes in the damping ratio and the eigenfrequency in dependence of the feedback delays, state estimation deviations and parameter uncertainties. The feedback delay, tilting angles and thrust coefficient are found to be the dominant factors, which affect the control performance.