Exploiting the dynamics of a robotic manipulator for control of UAVs

Abstract

This paper presents a new free-flight controller for aerial manipulators, unmanned aerial vehicles endowed with a robotic manipulator. The control strategy exploits the dynamics of the manipulator to improve the tracking performance and maneuverability of the UAV by expanding its flight envelop. The controller increases the spectrum of deployable manipulators, which otherwise are limited to be light-weighted manipulators and with a dynamics that do not significantly affect the UAV. The effectiveness and applicability of the proposed controller is verified through simulations and experiments.