Physical Interactive Aerial Robotics in the Real World: Enabling Methods in Design and Control

Physical Interactive Aerial Robotics in the Real World: Enabling Methods in Design and Control

Physical interactive tasks have often been kept far from the conception and development of robotic flying systems. In recent years, a few research groups in the world have started studying the problem of elevating aerial vehicles from the condition of pure observers to the one of fully-mature robotic actors able to help humans in manipulating and operating in places that are hardly accessible with other types of robots. In this lecture, Antonio will present, from an application driven perspective, the main technical and theoretical challenges of this field. He will then talk about the recent results of his group at LAAS-CNRS in the design of flying machines that are the most suited for aerial physical interaction, such as multi-directional thrust vehicles, and he illustrate the novel concept of flying companions and MAGMaS systems, where one or more aerial robots collaborate with ground robots in order to co-manipulate long objects. He will also show how the control of physical interaction can be used to achieve capabilities that are otherwise impossible to standard (contact-free) aerial vehicles, such as stable landing on inclined surfaces, physically inspecting curved pipes with sensor probes, and he will also touch upon the topic of how a proper design of an aerial manipulator may greatly simplify the end-effector nonlinear control problem. Antonio will conclude the lecture with some insights on current and future directions in this exciting domain of robotics.