Forceful Aerial Manipulation Based on an Aerial Robotic Chain: Hybrid Modeling and Control

Abstract

This letter presents the system design, modeling, and control of the Aerial Robotic Chain Manipulator. This new robot design offers the potential to exert strong forces and moments on the environment, carry and lift significant payloads, and simultaneously navigate through narrow corridors. We contribute a hybrid modeling framework to model the system both in Free-flight mode, where the end-effector acts as a normal pendulum, and in Aerial Manipulation mode, where the system behaves as an inverted pendulum. Respective controllers are designed for both operating modes with stability guarantees provided by Lyapunov theory. The presented experimental studies include a task of valve rotation, a pick-and-release task, and the verification of load oscillation suppression to demonstrate the stability and performance of the system.