The flight time of multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is typically constrained by their high power consumption. Tethered power systems present a viable solution to extend flight times while maintaining the advantages of multirotor UAVs, such as hover capability and agility. This paper addresses the critical aspect of cable selection for tether-powered multirotor UAVs, considering both hover and forward flight. Existing research often overlooks the trade-offs between cable mass, power losses, and system constraints. We propose a novel methodology to optimize cable selection, accounting for thrust requirements and power efficiency across various flight conditions. The approach combines physics-informed modeling with system identification to combine hover and forward flight dynamics, incorporating factors such as motor efficiency, tether resistance, and aerodynamic drag. This work provides an intuitive and practical framework for optimizing tethered UAV designs, ensuring efficient power transmission and flight performance. Thus allowing for better, safer, and more efficient tethered drones.
Singapore Centre for 3D Printing（新加坡3D打印中心）；Nanyang Technological University（南洋理工大学）
This paper considers the motion planning problem for multiple tethered planar mobile robots. Each robot is attached to a fixed base by a flexible cable. Since the robots share a common workspace, the interactions amongst the robots, cables, and obstacles pose significant difficulties for planning. Previous works have studied the problem of detecting whether a target cable configuration is intersecting (or entangled). Here, we are interested in the motion planning problem: how to plan and coordinate the robot motions to realize a given non-intersecting target cable configuration. We identify fo…
Redundant Observer-Based Tracking Control for Object Extraction Using a Cable Connected UAV
Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering, Loughborough University（航空与汽车工程系，洛桑大学）；Department of Computer Science, University College London（计算机科学系，伦敦大学学院）；Department Of Computer Science, University of Liverpool（计算机科学系，利物浦大学）
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…
Physics-Informed Neural Network for Multirotor Slung Load Systems Modeling
Institute for Systems and Robotics (ISR)（系统与机器人研究所）；Laboratory of Robotics and Engineering Systems (LARSyS)（机器人与工程系统实验室）；Instituto Superior Técnico（高等技术学院）；University of Lisbon（里斯本大学）；CTS/Uninova（新大学中心技术与系统研究中心）；NOVA School of Science and Technology (FCT-NOVA)（NOVA科学与技术学院）
Osaka University（大阪大学）；National Inst. of AIST（日本产业技术综合研究所）
In this paper, we present a planner for manipulating tethered tools using dual-armed robots. The planner generates robot motion sequences to maneuver a tool and its cable while avoiding robot-cable entanglements. Firstly, the planner generates an Object Manipulation Motion Sequence (OMMS) to handle the tool and place it in desired poses. Secondly, the planner examines the tool movement associated with the OMMS and computes candidate positions for a cable slider, to maneuver the tool cable and avoid collisions. Finally, the planner determines the optimal slider positions to avoid entanglements …
A Cooperative Aerial System of A Payload Drone Equipped with Dexterous Rappelling End Droid for Cluttered Space Pickup
School of Aerospace Science and Engineering, Beihang University（北京航空航天大学航空航天科学与工程学院）；Hangzhou International Innovation Institute of Beihang University（北京航空航天大学杭州国际创新研究院）；Institute of Unmanned System, Beihang University（北京航空航天大学无人系统研究院）；Tianmushan Laboratory（天门山实验室）
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…
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））
Osaka University（大阪大学）；National Inst. of AIST（国立先进工业科学技术研究所）
In this paper, we present a planner for a master dual-arm robot to manipulate tethered tools with an assistant dual-arm robot's help. The assistant robot provides assistance to the master robot by manipulating the tool cable and avoiding collisions. The provided assistance allows the master robot to perform tool placements on the robot workspace table to regrasp the tool, which would typically fail since the tool cable tension may change the tool positions. It also allows the master robot to perform tool handovers, which would normally cause entanglements or collisions with the cable and the e…
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）
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）
Considering an environment containing polygonal obstacles, we address the problem of planning motions for a pair of planar robots connected to one another via a cable of limited length. Much like prior problems with a single robot connected via a cable to a fixed base, straight line-of-sight visibility plays an important role. The present paper shows how the reduced visibility graph provides a natural discretization and captures the essential topological considerations very effectively for the two robot case as well. Unlike the single robot case, however, the bounded cable length introduces co…
Trajectory Optimization for Self-Wrap-Aware Cable-Towed Planar Object Manipulation under Implicit Tension Constraints
Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence, Technical University of Munich, Germany（慕尼黑机器人与机器智能研究所，慕尼黑技术大学，德国）；Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook University（石溪大学机械工程系）
