Gain Scheduling Position Control for Fully-actuated Morphing Multi-rotor UAVs

This work presents techniques for scheduling the position controller gains for a class of fully-actuated morphing multi-rotor UAVs that use synchronized tilting to change their actuation capabilities. The feasible set of forces and torques that can be produced by the platform changes with the tilting angle, thus the tracking and disturbance rejection capabilities also change. To exploit the platform limits, two methods are proposed for gain scheduling using a simplified example, then one method is tested in simulation with an omnidirectional morphing multi-rotor (OmniMorph). The simulation results show that the developed techniques achieve consistent position tracking performance along the range of tilting angles when rejecting step disturbance forces of values close to the maximum force capabilities. The proposed methods offer a trade-off between simplicity and accuracy, that could be potentially applied for any multi-rotor with synchronized tilting capabilities. A video summary can be found in: https://youtu.be/kH-rrO8gWe

Modelling, Analysis, and Control of OmniMorph: an Omnidirectional Morphing Multi-rotor UAV

This paper introduces for the first time the design, modelling, and control of a novel morphing multi-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that we call the OmniMorph. The morphing ability allows the selection of the configuration that optimizes energy consumption while ensuring the needed maneuverability for the required task. The most energy-efficient uni-directional thrust (UDT) configuration can be used, e.g., during standard point-to-point displacements. Fully-actuated (FA) and omnidirectional (OD) configurations can be instead used for full pose tracking, such as, e.g., constant attitude horizontal motions and full rotations on the spot, and for full wrench 6D interaction control and 6D disturbance rejection. Morphing is obtained using a single servomotor, allowing possible minimization of weight, costs, and maintenance complexity. The actuation properties are studied, and an optimal controller that compromises between performance and control effort is proposed and validated in realistic simulations. Preliminary tests on the prototype are presented to assess the propellers’ mutual aerodynamic interference.</p

Invisible Servoing:a Visual Servoing Approach with Return-Conditioned Latent Diffusion

In this paper, we present a novel visual servoing (VS) approach based on latent Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models (DDPMs). Opposite to classical VS methods, the proposed approach allows reaching the desired target view, even when the target is initially not visible. This is possible thanks to the learning of a latent representation that the DDPM uses for planning and a dataset of trajectories encompassing target-invisible initial views. The latent representation is learned using a Cross-Modal Variational Autoencoder, and used to estimate the return for conditioning the trajectory generation of the DDPM. Given the current image, the DDPM generates trajectories in the latent space driving the robotic platform to the desired visual target. The approach is applicable to any velocity-based controlled platform. We test our method with simulated and real-world experiments using generic multi-rotor Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). A video of our experiments can be found at https://youtu.be/yu-aTxqceOA

Modelling, Analysis and Control of OmniMorph: an Omnidirectional Morphing Multi-rotor UAV

This paper introduces for the first time the design, modelling, and control of a novel morphing multi-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that we call the OmniMorph. The morphing ability allows the selection of the configuration that optimizes energy consumption while ensuring the needed maneuverability for the required task. The most energy-efficient uni-directional thrust (UDT) configuration can be used, e.g., during standard point-to-point displacements. Fully-actuated (FA) and omnidirectional (OD) configurations can be instead used for full pose tracking, such as, e.g., constant attitude horizontal motions and full rotations on the spot, and for full wrench 6D interaction control and 6D disturbance rejection. Morphing is obtained using a single servomotor, allowing possible minimization of weight, costs, and maintenance complexity. The actuation properties are studied, and an optimal controller that compromises between performance and control effort is proposed and validated in realistic simulations

Modelling, Analysis and Control of OmniMorph:an Omnidirectional Morphing Multi-rotor UAV

We present the design, modelling, and control of a novel morphing multi-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that we call the OmniMorph. The morphing ability allows the platform to switch between different configurations to achieve the required task. The uni-directional thrust (UDT) configuration can be used for energy-efficient navigation, while fully-actuated (FA) and omnidirectional (OD) configurations can be used for full pose tracking and make the platform assume any orientation while compensating the gravity. The platform is equipped with eight bi-directional propellers that are actively tilted in a synchronized fashion using only one additional degree of actuation

Physical Human-Aerial Robot Interaction and Collaboration: Exploratory Results and Lessons Learned

International audienceIn this work, we present, a first of its kind, physical human-aerial robot interaction (pHARI) experiment, with an articulated aerial manipulator (AM). The robotic platform is a fully-actuated multi-rotor aerial vehicle (MRAV) with fixedly-tilted propellers endowed with a 3degree of freedom (DoF) robotic arm. We implemented a state-of-the-art control architecture composed of a feedback linearization motion controller, an admittance filter and a hybrid wrench observer. The experiments prove the viability of a new use case in aerial robotics, namely pHARI. The experimental results also shed light on the limitations of the current state-of-the-art and provide insights into possible research directions. The video of the experiments, which is available at https://youtu.be/LrQxXbQ5IHc, shows an experiment simulating work at height, where a human manually guides an AM and then attaches a tool to its end effector (EE)

Physical Human-Aerial Robot Interaction and Collaboration: Exploratory Results and Lessons Learned

International audienceIn this work, we present, a first of its kind, physical human-aerial robot interaction (pHARI) experiment, with an articulated aerial manipulator (AM). The robotic platform is a fully-actuated multi-rotor aerial vehicle (MRAV) with fixedly-tilted propellers endowed with a 3degree of freedom (DoF) robotic arm. We implemented a state-of-the-art control architecture composed of a feedback linearization motion controller, an admittance filter and a hybrid wrench observer. The experiments prove the viability of a new use case in aerial robotics, namely pHARI. The experimental results also shed light on the limitations of the current state-of-the-art and provide insights into possible research directions. The video of the experiments, which is available at https://youtu.be/LrQxXbQ5IHc, shows an experiment simulating work at height, where a human manually guides an AM and then attaches a tool to its end effector (EE)

Physical Human-Aerial Robot Interaction and Collaboration: Exploratory Results and Lessons Learned

In this work, we present, a first of its kind, physical human-aerial robot interaction (pHARI) experiment, with an articulated aerial manipulator (AM). The robotic platform is a fully-actuated multi-rotor aerial vehicle (MRAV) with fixedly-tilted propellers endowed with a 3degree of freedom (DoF) robotic arm. We implemented a state-of-the-art control architecture composed of a feedback linearization motion controller, an admittance filter and a hybrid wrench observer. The experiments prove the viability of a new use case in aerial robotics, namely pHARI. The experimental results also shed light on the limitations of the current state-of-the-art and provide insights into possible research directions. The video of the experiments, which is available at https://youtu.be/LrQxXbQ5IHc, shows an experiment simulating work at height, where a human manually guides an AM and then attaches a tool to its end effector (EE)