Compliant Aerial Manipulators: Developing the New Generation of Aerial Robotic Workers

This video demonstrates the results found in the research of a new topic in aerial manipulation. We attempt to successfully collide on the environment with the UAV without crashing. This can be useful to robustly establish contact with the environment in realistic outdoor scenarios, where precise knowledge on the position of the drone might not always available.

In the video three different experiments are shown. In all of these experiments, the manipulator arm (in  this case a rotating rod) is in front of the drones center of mass.

The first experiment shows the collision of the drone with the environment when the manipulator is rigidly connected to the drone. This causes a severe impact, which destabilizes the drone. It is simply too much energy for the drone to handle. In the second experiment the manipulator arm is connected to the drone via a spring-damper system  to reduce the severeness of the impact. This shows significant improvement, but the drone is unable to maintain contact and bounces. The key to success in this work was to add a mechanical one-direction stop on the manipulator. This stop allows the arm to be pressed in during impact, but prevents the arm from releasing the energy afterwards. The third experiment shows how this works and demonstrates a beautiful smooth impact to achieve contact.