Past, Present, and Future of Aerial Robotic Manipulators

Abstract

This article analyzes the evolution and current trends in aerial robotic manipulation, comprising helicopters, conventional underactuated multirotors, and multidirectional thrust platforms equipped with a wide variety of robotic manipulators capable of physically interacting with the environment. It also covers cooperative aerial manipulation and interconnected actuated multibody designs. The review is completed with developments in teleoperation, perception, and planning. Finally, a new generation of aerial robotic manipulators is presented with our vision of the future. Index Terms-Aerial manipulation, aerial robots physically interacting with the environment, unmanned aerial vehicles. I. INTRODUCTIONT HE field of aerial robots physically interacting with the environment, and particularly aerial robotic manipulators (AEROMs), has experienced ten years of sustained growth. Diverse prototypes, functionalities and capabilities have been developed and evaluated in representative indoor and outdoor scenarios, demonstrating the possibility to successfully perform manipulation tasks while flying. The ability of aerial manipulators to quickly reach and operate in high altitude workspaces, along with the level of maturity reached in recent years, led to the application of this technology in areas like inspection and maintenance, reducing time, cost, and risk for the human workers. In this sense, this article aims at providing a broad perspective and analysis of the work done in aerial manipulation,

Aerial Tele-Manipulation with Passive Tool via Parallel Position/Force Control

“…The detachment phase also showed some bouncing effects, which is due to the time it takes to deplete the integral term, and imprecise free flight position control in the vicinity of the object. This effect is mitigated by deploying the switch function (7), and by bounding the integral term and choosing a small coefficient for it while choosing appropriately big proportional and derivative terms. A similar phenomenon is also observed in the case of grounded manipulators controlled by the parallel position/force control method in [35] and referred to as the sticky-effect.…”

“…Aerial manipulation is the deliberately controlled physical interaction of an aerial manipulator with objects in its environment. For an extensive overview of the works on this topic, the interested reader is referred to [6,7]. By aerial manipulator we mean a small size Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) equipped with a manipulation tool.…”

A Versatile Aerial Manipulator Design and Realization of UAV Take-Off from a Rocking Unstable Surface

“…Therefore, the literature in [34] classifies various manipulator system mounted on the UAV based on the configuration of the workspace and function. In addition, the evolution and current trends in aerial robotic manipulation can be analyzed by the work in [35]. Previously, with TAMS [12], we considered the workspace such that the manipulator tips can reach the regions around, below and above the airframe.…”

Experimental Evaluation of Aerial Manipulation Robot for the Installation of Clip Type Bird Diverters: Outdoor Flight Tests

“…In this sense, the AERIAL-CORE project proposes the use of aerial robots for the inspection and maintenance of power lines, motivated by the ability of this kind of platforms to reach quickly and operate in high altitude workspaces [6]. Aerial manipulation robots [7][8] [9] extend the functionalities and capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) like multi-rotors and helicopters with the integration of end effectors [10] [11] [12] or robotic arms [13] [14] [15] that allow the realization of manipulation tasks on flight, while perching [16] [17], or once the platform has landed on the workspace [18].…”