In this work, we propose a centralized control method based on nonlinear model predictive control to let multiple UAVs manipulate the full pose of an object via cables. At the best of the authors knowledge this is the first method that takes into account the full nonlinear model of the load-UAV system, and ensures all the feasibility constraints concerning the UAV maximumum and minimum thrusts, the collision avoidance between the UAVs, cables and load, and the tautness and maximum tension of the cables. By taking into account the above factors, the proposed control algorithm can fully exploit the performance of UAVs and facilitate the speed of operation. Simulations are conducted to validate the algorithm to achieve fast and safe manipulation of the pose of a rigid-body payload using multiple UAVs. We demonstrate that the computational time of the proposed method is sufficiently small (<100 ms) for UAV teams composed by up to 10 units, which makes it suitable for a huge variety of future industrial applications, such as autonomous building construction and heavy-load transportation.
PolyFly: Polytopic Optimal Planning for Collision-Free Cable-Suspended Aerial Payload Transportation
University of California Berkeley, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences（加州大学伯克利分校电子工程与计算机科学系）；Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Robotics Engineering（沃思黑德技术学院机器人工程）
Hierarchical Whole-body Control of the cable-Suspended Aerial Manipulator endowed with Winch-based Actuation
German Aerospace Center (DLR)（德国航空航天中心（DLR））；University of Twente（特文特大学）；Dextrous Robotics Inc.（灵巧机器人公司）；Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica（航空技术研究所）；Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)（韩国科学技术院（KAIST））；TU Wien（维也纳工业大学）
California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）；ETH Zurich（苏黎世联邦理工学院）；Northeastern University（东北大学）
The feasibility of performing airborne and ground manipulation, perception, and reconnaissance using wheeled rovers, unmanned aerial vehicles, CubeSats, SmallSats and more have been evaluated before. Among all of these solutions, balloon-based systems possess merits that make them extremely attractive, e.g., a simple operation mechanism and endured operation time. However, there are many hurdles to overcome to achieve robust loitering performance in balloon-based applications. We attempt to identify design and control challenges, and propose a novel robotic platform that allows for the applica…
Nonlinear Predictive Control of the Continuum and Hybrid Dynamics of a Suspended Deformable Cable for Aerial Pick and Place
Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome（计算机、控制与管理工程系，罗马萨皮恩扎大学）；Robotics and Mechatronics Department, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science (EEMCS) Faculty, University of Twente（机器人与机电系，电气工程、数学与计算机科学（EEMCS） faculty，特文特大学）
Cooperative Control of Multi-Quadrotors for Transporting Cable-Suspended Payloads: Obstacle-Aware Planning and Event-Based Nonlinear Model Predictive Control
Toronto Metropolitan University（多伦多都会大学）；University of Alberta（阿尔伯塔大学）
Agile and Cooperative Aerial Manipulation of a Cable-Suspended Load
Delft University of Technology（代尔夫特理工大学）；Sorbonne Université（索邦大学）；University of Twente（埃因霍温理工大学）；Sapienza University of Rome（罗马萨皮恩扎大学）；Univ Rennes, CNRS, Inria, IRISA, France（里昂大学，CNRS，Inria，IRISA，法国）
German Aerospace Center (DLR)（德国航空航天中心（DLR））；Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech)（斯科尔科沃科学技术研究所（斯科尔科沃理工学院））；LAAS-CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心自动化系统实验室）；Université de Toulouse（图卢兹大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）
High risk of a collision between rotor blades and the obstacles in a complex environment imposes restrictions on the aerial manipulators. To solve this issue, a novel system cable-Suspended Aerial Manipulator (SAM) is presented in this paper. Instead of attaching a robotic manipulator directly to an aerial carrier, it is mounted on an active platform which is suspended on the carrier by means of a cable. As a result, higher safety can be achieved because the aerial carrier can keep a distance from the obstacles. For self-stabilization, the SAM is equipped with two actuation systems: winches an…
Dual Quaternion Control of UAVs with Cable-suspended Load
Technical University of Munich（慕尼黑工业大学）；School of Engineering and Design（工程与设计学院）；Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI)（慕尼黑机器人与机器智能研究所）；Autonomous Aerial Systems（自主航空系统（机构））
Payload trajectory tracking control for aerial transportation systems with cable length online optimization
Institute of Robotics and Automatic Information System, College of Artificial Intelligence（机器人与自动化信息系统研究所，人工智能学院）；Tianjin Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robotics, Nankai University（天津智能机器人重点实验室，南开大学）；Institute of Intelligence Technology and Robotic Systems（智能技术与机器人系统研究所）；Shenzhen Research Institute of Nankai University（南开大学深圳研究院）
German Aerospace Center (DLR)（德国航空航天中心）；Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech)（斯科尔科沃科学技术研究所）
This paper presents a design of oscillation damping control for the cable-Suspended Aerial Manipulator (SAM). The SAM is modeled as a double pendulum, and it can generate a body wrench as a control action. The main challenge is the fact that there is only one onboard IMU sensor which does not provide full information on the system state. To overcome this difficulty, we design a controller motivated by a simplified SAM model. The proposed controller is very simple yet robust to model uncertainties. Moreover, we propose a gain tuning rule by formulating the proposed controller in the form of out…
Partial Feedback Linearization Control of a Cable-Suspended Multirotor Platform for Stabilization of an Attached Load
Automation and Control Institute (ACIN), TU Wien（自动化与控制研究所（ACIN），维也纳技术大学）；Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, German Aerospace Center (DLR)（机器人与机电研究所，德国航空航天中心（DLR））
A quadcopter is an under-actuated system with only four control inputs for six degrees of freedom, and yet the human control of a quadcopter is simple enough to be learned with some practice. In this work, we consider the problem of human control of a multiple quadcopters system to transport a cable-suspended payload. The coupled dynamics of the system, due to the inherent physical constraints, is used to develop a leader-follower architecture where the leader quadcopter is controlled directly by a human operator and the followers are controlled with the proposed Payload Attitude Controller an…
Robotic manipulation of tethered tools is widely seen in robotic work cells. They may cause excess strain on the tool's cable or undesired entanglements with the robot's arms. This paper presents a manipulation planner with cable orientation constraints for tethered tools suspended by tool balancers. The planner uses orientation constraints to limit the bending of the balancer's cable while the robot manipulates a tool and places it in a desired pose. The constraints reduce entanglements and decrease the torque induced by the cable on the robot joints. Simulation and real-world experiments sho…
Manipulation of Elasto-Flexible Cables with Single or Multiple UAVs
Robotics and Mechatronics Department, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science (EEMCS) Faculty, University of Twente（代尔夫特理工大学机器人与机电学系）；Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome（罗马萨皮恩扎大学计算机、控制与管理工程系）
École Centrale de Nantes (ECN)（南特中央理工学院）；Laboratoire des Sciences du Numérique de Nantes (LS2N)（南特数字科学实验室）；Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)（法国国家科学研究中心）
Aerial Cable Towed Systems (ACTS) are composed of several Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) connected to a payload by cables. Compared to towing objects from individual aerial vehicles, an ACTS has significant advantages such as heavier payload capacity, modularity, and full control of the payload pose. They are however generally large with limited ability to meet geometric constraints while avoiding collisions between UAVs. This paper presents the modelling, performance analysis, design, and a proposed controller for a novel ACTS with variable cable lengths, named Variable Aerial Cable Towed Sy…
Vibration Damping in Underactuated Cable-suspended Artwork -- Flying Belt Motion Control
NTIS Research Center, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czechia（NTIS研究所以西波西米亚大学，普日辛，捷克）；Antimodular Research Inc., Montreal, Canada（Antimodular研究公司，蒙特利尔，加拿大）；Department of Mechanics, Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czechia（力学部门，应用科学学院，西波西米亚大学，普日辛，捷克）
本文改进了Rafael Lozano-Hemmer的交互式机器人艺术装置Standards and Double Standards，通过硬件升级和控制算法优化，解决了振动问题，提升了互动性能。
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are reaching offshore. In this work, we formulate the novel problem of a marine locomotive quadrotor UAV, which manipulates the surge velocity of a floating buoy by means of a cable. The proposed robotic system can have a variety of novel applications for UAVs where their high speed and maneuverability, as well as their ease of deployment and wide field of vision, give them a superior advantage. In addition, the major limitation of limited flight time of quadrotor UAVs is typically addressed through an umbilical power cable, which naturally integrates with the p…
Aerial Transportation Control of Suspended Payloads with Multiple Agents
Center for Research in Mathematics CIMAT AC（数学研究中心CIMAT AC）；Investigadores CONACYT at Center for Research in Mathematics CIMAT AC（墨西哥国家科学技术委员会研究员（任职于数学研究中心CIMAT AC））；Sorbonne Universitès（索邦大学）；Université de Technologie de Compiègne（贡比涅技术大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；Heudiasyc UMR 7253（赫迪亚西实验室UMR 7253）
University of Nantes（南特大学）；IUT Nantes（南特大学技术学院）；University of Rennes（雷恩大学）；INSA Rennes（雷恩国立应用科学学院）；Centrale Nantes（南特中央理工学院）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）
This paper deals with the use of input-shaping filters in conjunction with a feed-forward control of Cable-Driven Parallel Robots (CDPRs), while integrating cable tension calculation to satisfy positive cable tensions along the prescribed trajectory of the moving-platform. This method aims to attenuate the oscillatory motions of the moving-platform. Thus, the input signal is modified to make it self-cancel residual vibrations. 5 The effectiveness, in terms of moving-platform oscillation attenuation, of the proposed closed-loop control method combined with shaping inputs is experimentally studi…
Observability Analysis and Composite Disturbance Filtering for a Bar Tethered to Dual UAVs Subject to Multi-source Disturbances
School of Cyber Science and Technology, Beihang University（信息科学与技术学院，北航）；School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University（自动化科学与电气工程学院，北航）；Beijing Engineering Research Center of Industrial Spectrum Imaging（工业频谱成像北京工程研究中心）；School of Automation and Electrical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing（自动化与电气工程学院，北京科技大学）；Hangzhou Innovation Institute, Beihang University（杭州创新研究院，北航）
Using quadrotors UAVs for cooperative payload transportation using cables has been actively gaining interest in recent years. Understanding the dynamics of these complex multi-agent systems would help towards designing safe and reliable systems. In this work, we study one such multi-agent system comprising of multiple quadrotors transporting a flexible hose. We model the hose as a series of smaller discrete links and derive a generalized coordinate-free dynamics for the same. We show that certain configurations of this under-actuated system are differentially-flat. We linearize the dynamics us…
German Aerospace Center (DLR)（德国航空航天中心（DLR））；Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)（卡尔斯鲁厄理工学院（KIT））；University of Twente (UT)（特文特大学（UT））；Technical University of Munich (TUM)（慕尼黑工业大学（TUM））
This article presents a novel telepresence system for advancing aerial manipulation in dynamic and unstructured environments. The proposed system not only features a haptic device, but also a virtual reality (VR) interface that provides real-time 3D displays of the robot's workspace as well as a haptic guidance to its remotely located operator. To realize this, multiple sensors namely a LiDAR, cameras and IMUs are utilized. For processing of the acquired sensory data, pose estimation pipelines are devised for industrial objects of both known and unknown geometries. We further propose an active…
