Dynamic analysis, optimal planning and composite control for aerial arm-operating with a multi-propeller multifunction aerial robot

The multi-propeller multifunction aerial robot with two manipulators has the potential to deal with arm-operating in the air. However, the interaction between the main-body and manipulator subsystems make the robot be difficult to accomplish the task of arm-operating. This paper investigates the modeling, planning, and control problem of the robot for arm-operating purposes. The paper presents the dynamic analysis of the aerial robot not contacting with the environment. The dynamics of the whole system are partitioned into several meaningful parts: the main-body dynamics, the manipulator dynamics, and the interaction dynamics. Furthermore, an optimal planning strategy which can minimize the interaction between main-body subsystem and manipulator subsystem is proposed. The paper also investigates a simple composite controller that is composed of main-body controller and manipulator controller. Each subcontroller is designed based on the partitioned dynamics. The simulation results validate the dynamic model, the benefit of the optimal planning approach, and the effectiveness of the composite controller.