2016, Decoupled Controllers for Mobile Manipulation with Aerial Robots
Aerial robots extends the ability of mobile manipulation to the three dimensional space, opening the door to new applications, such as the inspection and maintenance of tall and inaccessible buildings as well as access to remote and odd locations. Multirotor helicopters have several beneficial properties compared to other types of UAVs thanks to their capability to hover, to take off and land vertically, and the high manoeuvrability. This thesis considers the control of a UAV with an attached manipulator and its many applications.
"Design, Implementation and Test of Decoupled Controllers for Mobile Manipulation with Aerial Robots" considers an aerial robot system composed of an Unmanned AerialVehicle (UAV) and a rigid manipulator, to be employed in mobile manipulation tasks. The strategy adopted for accomplishing the aerial manipulation is a decomposition of the previous system in two decoupled subsystems: one concerning the center of mass of the aerial robot; and another concerning the manipulator’s orientation. Two Lyapunov-based controllers are developed, using a backstepping procedure, for solving the trajectory tracking problems related tothe two subsystems. In the controller design, three inputs are assumed available: a translational acceleration along a body direction of the UAV; an angular velocity vector of this body rotation; and, finally, a torque at the spherical, or revolute, joint connecting the UAV and the manipulator. The first two inputs are generated by the same controller in order to drive the center of mass on a desired trajectory; while a second controller drives, through the third input,the manipulator’s orientation to track a desired orientation. Formal stability proofs are provided that guarantee asymptotic trajectory tracking. Finally, the proposed control strategy is experimentally tested and validated.
Riccardo Zanella's thesis "Design, Implementation and Test of Decoupled Controllers for Mobile Manipulation with Aerial Robots" has been realized under the supervision of Dimos V. Dimarogonas and Pedro O. Pereira in the Smart Mobility Lab at KTH Royal Institute of Technology during late 2015 and early 2016.