A Planning-and-Control Framework for Aerial Manipulation of Articulated Objects

This is the accompanying video of our RA-L paper titled "A Planning-and-Control Framework for Aerial Manipulation of Articulated Objects"
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Abstract:
While the variety of applications for Aerial Manipulators (AMs) has increased over the last years, they are mostly limited to push-and-slide tasks. More complex manipulations of dynamic environments are poorly addressed and still require handcrafted designs of hardware, control, and trajectory planning. In this paper we focus on the active manipulation of articulated objects with AMs. We present a novel planning and control approach that allows the AM to execute complex interaction maneuvers with as little as possible priors given by the operator.
Our framework combines sampling-based predictive control to generate pose trajectories with an impedance controller for compliant behaviours, applied to a fully-actuated flying platform.
The framework leverages a physics engine to simulate the dynamics of the platform and the environment in order to find optimal motions to execute manipulation tasks.
Experiments on two selected examples of pulling open a door and of turning a valve show the feasibility of the proposed approach.
Reference:
M. Brunner, G. Rizzi, M. Studiger, R. Siegwart and M. Tognon, "A Planning-and-Control Framework for Aerial Manipulation of Articulated Objects," in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2022, doi: 10.1109/LRA.2022.3191178

[@metallsimon]

So fascinating to see whats possible with drones. Next Project: Put a Softgripper at the end to pick blackberries and other Fruits gently! (And send it to me :D here are lots of wild Blackberries i cant reach by hand)

[@griffinfocusproject3117]

You might be interested in the drone we've built ;) Check out our videos for a fully omnidirectional OMAV equipped with a soft adaptive gripper! Our drone could surely grasp those hard to reach Blackberries!