Through-Window Home Aerial Delivery System with In-Flight Parcel Load and Handover: Design and Validation in Indoor Scenario

Abstract

This paper presents the design, development, and validation in indoor scenario of an aerial delivery system intended to conduct the delivery of light parcels directly to the user through the window of his/her home, motivated by the convenience of facilitating the access to medicines to people with reduced mobility.The system consists of a fully-actuated multi-rotor (FAMR) equipped with a front basket where the parcel to be delivered is loaded by a lightweight and compliant anthropomorphic dual arm system (LiCAS) located at the supply point, using one of the arms to drop the parcel in the basket while the other arm holds its base to support the sudden moment exerted at the FAMR. The paper analyses four types of physical interactions raised during the operation on flight: (1) sudden changes in the mass distribution of the FAMR during the load/unload phase, affecting the multi-rotor position-attitude controllers, (2) impact and impulsive forces exerted by the human on the FAMR to demonstrate the reliability and robustness of conventional cascade controllers, (3) passive accommodation of the LiCAS while holding the FAMR during the parcel load, relying on the mechanical joint compliance, and (4) compliant human–FAMR interaction, interpreting the multi-rotor pose control error as a Cartesian/angular deflection to implement an admittance controller that allows the user guiding the platform. Experimental results allow the identification and characterization of these effects for different payload masses. The execution of the complete operation, involving the parcel load with the LiCAS and handover by the user through a window, is validated in a representative indoor scenario. Graphical Abstract