Artificial and Virtual Impedance Interaction Force Reflection-Based Bilateral Shared Control for Miniature Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

In this paper, we propose artificial and virtual-impedance interaction force reflection-based shared control strategy for bilateral telemanipulation of miniature aerial vehicle (MAV). The shared input for the master is designed by combining the velocity of the slave-MAV system with the scaled position-velocity of the master manipulator. The master input also uses the reflected interaction force between the slave and remote environment. The interaction force between environment and MAV is modeled by using two different approaches as the artificial and virtual impedance force field. The reflected interaction force applies to the human operators' hand through the haptic manipulator. The interaction force provides a situational awareness about the remote environment, guiding the operator to navigate and control the MAV for a safe and stable interaction with the remote environment. The shared control input for the slave is designed by combining the velocity of the MAV with the scaled position-velocity of the master manipulator. The convergence analysis of the closed-loop bilateral shared control system is shown by using the Lyapunov method. The analysis shows that the closed-loop system is input-to-state stable and ultimately bounded in the presence of passive and nonpassive interaction with the environment and the human operator. The design is implemented and evaluated on a quadrotor MAV with both artificial and virtual impedance force field based interaction interfaces to demonstrate the effectiveness for the real-time interaction with the environment.