Safe local aerial manipulation for the installation of devices on power lines: Aerial-core first year results and designs

Article number 6220The power grid is an essential infrastructure in any country, comprising thousands of kilometers of power lines that require periodic inspection and maintenance, carried out nowadays by human operators in risky conditions. To increase safety and reduce time and cost with respect to conventional solutions involving manned helicopters and heavy vehicles, the AERIAL-CORE project proposes the development of aerial robots capable of performing aerial manipulation operations to assist human operators in power lines inspection and maintenance, allowing the installation of devices, such as bird flight diverters or electrical spacers, and the fast delivery and retrieval of tools. This manuscript describes the goals and functionalities to be developed for safe local aerial manipulation, presenting the preliminary designs and experimental results obtained in the first year of the project.European Union (UE). H2020 871479Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades de España FPI 201

Estimating the water use efficiency of spring barley using crop models

status: publishe

Flight Stability in Aerial Redundant Manipulators

Ongoing efforts toward mobile manipulation from an aerial vehicle are presented. Recent tests and results from a prototype rotorcraft have shown that our hybrid structure increases stability during flight and manipulation. Since UAVs require significant setup time, suitable testing locations, and have tendencies to crash, we developed an aerial manipulation test and evaluation environment that provides controllable and repeatable experiments. By using force feedback techniques, we have designed multiple, dexterous, redundant manipulators that can grasp objects such as tools and small objects. These manipulators are controlled in concert with an emulated aerial platform to provide hovering stability. The manipulator and aircraft flight control are tightly coupled to facilitate grasping without large perturbations in the end-effector