Dynamic Feedforward-Based Fractional Order Impedance Control for Robot Manipulator

Impedance control is widely applied in contact force control for robot manipulators. The traditional impedance model is linear, and has limitations in describing the actual impedance force. In addition, time-varying and dynamic coupling characteristics pose critical challenges to high-speed and high-precision impedance control. In this paper, a fractional order impedance controller (FOIC) is proposed for industrial robot manipulator control and a systematic FOIC parameters tuning strategy based on frequency-domain specifications is presented. In order to improve performance under dynamic disturbances, a dynamic feedforward-based fractional order impedance controller (DFF-FOIC) is further developed. The robot manipulator dynamics are investigated and the effectiveness of the DFF-FOIC is illustrated by simulation. Then, the DFF-FOIC is applied on a physical robot manipulator prototype. Our step force tracking test results show that the proposed FOIC has better control performance than an integer order impedance controller (IOIC), achieving a better step response with lower overshoot, less settling time, and smaller integral time absolute error (ITAE) than the IOIC under fair comparison conditions.