On the control of an aerial manipulator interacting with the environment

This paper deals with the problem of modelling and controlling an innovative aerial manipulator, i.e. a vertical take-off and landing aircraft equipped with a fully-actuated robotic arm. This system is able to perform complex operations that require the physical interaction with the surrounding environment while remaining airborne. Once a detailed dynamical model in the planar case is provided, a control law able to govern all the degrees of freedom of the system is discussed. Beside the methodological contribution that is easily extendable to different combinations of UAVs and robotic arms, the effectiveness and main properties of the proposed control algorithm are illustrated with the help of an experiment that takes into account the case in which the manipulator is in contact with the surrounding environment.