Mechanical Design, Modelling and Control of a Novel Aerial Manipulator

In this paper a novel aerial manipulation system is proposed. The mechanical structure of the system, the number of thrusters and their geometry will be derived from technical optimization problems. The aforementioned problems are defined by taking into consideration the desired actuation forces and torques applied to the end-effector of the system. The framework of the proposed system is designed in a CAD Package in order to evaluate the system parameter values. Following this, the kinematic and dynamic models are developed and an adaptive backstepping controller is designed aiming to control the exact position and orientation of the end-effector in the Cartesian space. Finally, the performance of the system is demonstrated through a simulation study, where a manipulation task scenario is investigated.Comment: Comments: 8 Pages, 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA '15), Seattle, WA, US

Design and implementation of a dual-axis tilting quadcopter

Standard quadcopters are popular largely because of their mechanical simplicity relative to other hovering aircraft, low cost and minimum operator involvement. However, this simplicity imposes fundamental limits on the types of maneuvers possible due to its under-actuation. The dexterity and fault tolerance required for flying in limited spaces like forests and industrial infrastructures dictate the use of a bespoke dual-tilting quadcopter that can launch vertically, performs autonomous flight between adjacent obstacles and is even capable of flying in the event of the failure of one or two motors. This paper proposes an actuation concept to enhance the performance characteristics of the conventional under-actuated quadcopter. The practical formation of this concept is followed by the design, modeling, simulation and prototyping of a dual-axis tilting quadcopter. Outdoor flight tests using tilting rotors, to follow a trajectory containing adjacent obstacles, were conducted in order to compare the flight of conventional quadcopter with the proposed over-actuated vehicle. The results show that the quadcopter with tilting rotors provides more agility and mobility to the vehicle especially in narrow indoor and outdoor infrastructures

Design and Control of Omni-directional aerial robot

학위논문 (석사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 기계항공공학부, 2016. 2. 이동준.우리는 비대칭적인 분산된 멀티 로터 배치로 SE(3)에서 fully-actuated한 특성을 가지고 비행과 회전이 동시에 가능하여 일반적인 비행로봇이 가지고 있는 under-actuation한 문제를 극복 할 수 있는 전방향 비행 로봇이라는 새로운 디자인의 비행 로봇을 제안한다. 먼저 우리는 각 로터들 사이의 공기역학적인 간섭을 최소화함과 동시에 최대의 제어 렌치를 생수 할 수 있게 하기 위해 로터 배치의 최적화 작업을 수행한다. 우리는 SE(3)에서 ODAR 시스템의 동역학 모델링을 제시하고 병진운동과 회전운동의 제어 디자인을 진행한다. 우리는 또한 ODAR 시스템을 실제 제작하고 그것의 성능을 검증한다. 기존의 비행로봇과는 완전히 다른 시스템으로서 우리는 ODAR 시스템이 전방향 렌치 생성이 중요한 항공 매니퓰레이터나 가상현실 렌더링 3D 환경구축을 위한 전방향 구동에서의 촬영 성능을 지닐 수 있는 항공 촬영 역할을 수행 할 것으로 믿는다.We propose a novel aerial robot system, Omni-Directional Aerial Robot (ODAR), which is fully-actuated in SE(3) with asymmetrically distributed multiple rotors and can fly and rotate at the same time, thereby, overcoming the well-known under-actuation problem of conventional multi-rotor aerial robots (or simply drones). We first perform optimization of rotor distribution to maximize control wrench generation in SE(3) while minimizing aero-dynamic interference among the rotors. We present dynamics modeling of the ODAR system in SE(3) and simultaneous translation / orientation control design. We also implement a ODAR system and experimentally validate its performance. Being completely different from the conventional drone, we believe this ODAR system would be promising for such applications as aerial manipulation, where omni-directional wrench generation is important, and also as aerial photography, where an ability to taking photos in omni-direction is desired for 3D environment reconstruction for VR scene rendering.1 서론 1 1.1 연구 동기 및 목적 1 1.2 연구 성과 4 2 시스템 디자인 및 제어 설계 6 2.1 시스템 디자인 6 2.2 제어 설계 16 3 시뮬레이션 21 3.1 시뮬레이션 준비 21 3.2 시뮬레이션 결과 24 4 시스템 제작 27 4.1 시스템 제작 준비 27 4.2 시스템 제작 구성품 28 4.3 시스템 제작 통합 34 5 실험 36 5.1 실험 준비 36 5.2 실험 결과 38 5.2.1 원형 궤적 추적 39 5.2.2 3D 영상촬영 모션 42 5.2.3 수직 구동 작업 45 6 결론 49 6.1 결론 49 6.2 향후 과제 50 참고문헌 52 Abstract 57Maste

飛行ロボットにおける人間・ロボットインタラクションの実現に向けて : ユーザー同伴モデルとセンシングインターフェース

学位の種別: 課程博士審査委員会委員 : （主査）東京大学准教授 矢入 健久, 東京大学教授 堀 浩一, 東京大学教授 岩崎 晃, 東京大学教授 土屋 武司, 東京理科大学教授 溝口 博University of Tokyo(東京大学

Rotor-Rotor Interactions in the Design of Unmanned Aerial Systems

This dissertation investigates the impact of rotor-rotor interactions on small Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) design. This work explores the aerodynamic effects of two rotor configurations, the first being non-coplanar overlapping rotors, tandem-rotors, and the second being the semi-coaxial rotor configuration, which is an adaptation of the traditional coaxial rotor configuration. This work is motivated by three UAS, two of which, the Tetracopter and the Dodecacopter, are designed and developed as a part of the work presented in this dissertation. The Tetracopter and Dodecacopter are multi-agent vehicles that implement multiple layers of non-coplanar overlapping rotors. The goal of these two vehicles is to implement a design where a multi-agent UAS can have the structural rigidity to withstand carrying payloads, whether the payload is carried above or below the vehicle while being as efficient as a multi-agent aircraft with coplanar rotors. The goal of the Y6sC is to show that the semi-coaxial rotor configuration allows a vehicle to be more efficient in hover than a traditional coaxial rotor configuration and that the semi-coaxial rotor configuration grants the vehicle more maneuverability than a traditional coaxial rotor configuration. This dissertation can be separated into two halves; the first half begins with the presentation of a thrust stand fabricated to collect data on both rotor configurations. This half also discusses the methods used to conduct these thrust stand experiments, the methods used to analyze the data, and discussions about the results and their comparison to established theories that predict the performance of these rotor configurations. A rotor configuration performance estimation method that is based on the empirical data collected is also presented, and the accuracy of this estimation method is validated. This estimation method is then used to estimate the optimal design of the Tetracopter and Dodecacopter, which accounts for the vehicle's weight and the performance of the vehicle's rotors which may be impacted by rotor-rotor interactions. The latter half of this dissertation discusses the design of the Dodecacopter along with the methods used to flight test the vehicle. The data produced from the flight tests are discussed, and estimations of the degradation in the vehicle's performance due to the rotor-rotor interactions are presented and discussed. The dissertation concludes with a brief discussion on the design implications derived from the results of the work presented.Ph.D

Strategies For Enhancing Performance of Flapping Wing Aerial Vehicles Using Multifunctional Structures and Mixed Flight Modes

Biological flapping wing flight offers a variety of advantages over conventional fixed wing aircraft and rotor craft. For example, flapping propulsion can offer the speed of fixed wing aircraft at similar scales while providing the maneuverability of rotor craft. Avian species easily display feats of perching, payload carrying, endurance flying, and transition behavior. In light of these characteristics, emulating and recreating flapping flight in biomimetic or bioinspired work is important in the development of next generation aerial systems. Unfortunately, recreating flapping wing flight is not easily achieved despite numerous efforts to do so. This is in large part due to technological deficiencies. With emerging technologies, it has been possible to begin to unravel the intricacies of flapping flight. Despite technological advancements, offsetting weight with mechanical systems robust enough to provide power and torque while sustaining loading remains difficult. As a result platforms either have simple flapping kinematics with fair payload or have more complex kinematics with limited excess power which in turn limits payload. The former limits capabilities to mirror biological performance characteristics and the latter limits the energy available to power flight which ultimately negatively impacts mission capabilities. Many flapping wing systems are subpar to traditional flying vehicles. Flapping systems can become more competitive in achieving various mission types with increased system performance. In particular, if endurance is coupled with desirable features such as those displayed in nature, i.e., avian perching, they may become superior assets. In this work, four strategies for increasing performance were pursued as follows: (1) increases to maneuverability and payload via a mixed mode approach of flapping wing used in conjunction with propellers, (2) rapid deceleration and variation of flight envelope via inertial control using the battery, (3) increased endurance via integrated energy storage in the wings, and (4) providing endurance to the point of complete energy autonomy using a design framework considering flapping wings with integrated high efficiency solar cells

Towards Human-UAV Physical Interaction and Fully Actuated Aerial Vehicles

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) ability to reach places not accessible to humans or other robots and execute tasks makes them unique and is gaining a lot of research interest recently. Initially UAVs were used as surveying and data collection systems, but lately UAVs are also efficiently employed in aerial manipulation and interaction tasks. In recent times, UAV interaction with the environment has become a common scenario, where manipulators are mounted on top of such systems. Current applications has driven towards the direction of UAVs and humans coexisting and sharing the same workspace, leading to the emerging futuristic domain of Human-UAV physical interaction. In this dissertation, initially we addressed the delicate problem of external wrench estimation (force/torque) in aerial vehicles through a generalized-momenta based residual approach. To our advantage, this approach is executable during flight without any additional sensors. Thereafter, we proposed a novel architecture allowing humans to physically interact with a UAV through the employment of sensor-ring structure and the developed external wrench estimator. The methodologies and algorithms to distinguish forces and torques derived by physical interaction with a human from the disturbance wrenches (due to e.g., wind) are defined through an optimization problem. Furthermore, an admittance-impedance control strategy is employed to act on them differently. This new hardware/software architecture allows for the safe human-UAV physical interaction through exchange of forces. But at the same time, other limitations such as the inability to exchange torques due to the underactuation of quadrotors and the need for a robust controller become evident. In order to improve the robust performance of the UAV, we implemented an adaptive super twisting sliding mode controller that works efficiently against parameter uncertainties, unknown dynamics and external perturbations. Furthermore, we proposed and designed a novel fully actuated tilted propeller hexarotor UAV. We designed the exact feedback linearization controller and also optimized the tilt angles in order to minimize power consumption, thereby improving the flight time. This fully actuated hexarotor could reorient while hovering and perform 6DoF (Degrees of Freedom) trajectory tracking. Finally we put together the external wrench observer, interaction techniques, hardware design, software framework, the robust controller and the different methodologies into the novel development of Human-UAV physical interaction with fully actuated UAV. As this framework allows humans and UAVs to exchange forces as well as torques, we believe it will become the next generation platform for the aerial manipulation and human physical interaction with UAVs