Wrench Analysis of Cable-Suspended Parallel Robots Actuated by Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

Aerial cable towed systems (ACTSs) can be created by joining unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to a payload to extend the capabilities of the system beyond those of an individual UAV. This paper describes a systematic method for evaluating the available wrench set and the robustness of equilibrium of ACTSs by adapting wrench analysis techniques used in traditional cable-driven parallel robots to account for the constraints of quadrotor actuation and dynamics. Case studies and experimental results are provided to demonstrate the analysis of different classes of ACTSs, as a means of evaluating the design and operating configurations.