Novel Omnidirectional Aerial Manipulator With Elastic Suspension: Dynamic Control and Experimental Performance Assessment

Abstract

Aerial manipulators may replace industrial manipulators for specific tasks involving large workspaces and high dynamics. However, these robots suffer from a lack of accuracy, autonomy, payload capability and a complex regulatory environment. To overcome some of these limitations, we introduce a novel aerial manipulator suspended by a spring to a robotic carrier. A computed torque controller with exteroceptive feedback is used to control the robot, using singular perturbation theory to prove the stability. We carried out various experiments to assess the workspace, accuracy and dynamics of the manipulator.