Modeling, Control and Human-In-The-Loop Stability Analysis of an Elastic Quadrotor

TL;DR

This paper develops an analytical framework for modeling and controlling a flexible quadrotor, including stability analysis with human-in-the-loop considerations, and demonstrates improved oscillation mitigation with adaptive control strategies.

Contribution

It introduces a hybrid equations of motion framework for flexible quadrotors and derives delay-dependent stability conditions for advanced control.

Findings

Flexible arm oscillations are reduced with a closed-loop reference model adaptive controller.

The framework enables decoupled rigid and elastic dynamics modeling.

Simulations confirm improved stability and oscillation mitigation.

Abstract

This paper introduces an analytical framework for the derivation of hybrid equations of motion of a flexible quadrotor. This approach helps obtain rigid and elastic equations of motion simultaneously, in a decoupled form, which facilitates the controller design. A delay-dependent stability condition is obtained for the overall system dynamics, including the operator with reaction time delay, the adaptive controller and the flexible quadrotor dynamics. Two different adaptive controllers are implemented to address the uncertainties. It is demonstrated via simulations that the flexible arm tip oscillations are mitigated when a closed loop reference model adaptive controller is used, compared to a conventional model reference adaptive controller.