Dynamic Modeling and Constrained Control of an Aerial Manipulator for Force Control in Interaction with an Environment of Unknown Stiffness

علوم کاربردی و محاسباتی در مکانیک

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 01 March 2025   

Document Type: Original Article

DOI: 10.22067/jacsm.2025.90706.1301

Authors

Reza Ebrahimi; Mohammad Jafar Sadigh^* ; Farzad Ayatollahzadeh Shirazi

School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Drones equipped with robotic arms are governed by nonlinear and complex equations. In this study, the dynamic model of a hexarotor equipped with a robotic arm with two degrees of freedom is first derived using the Euler-Lagrange method. Then, to enable interaction between this system and the environment, a controller is designed. To overcome underactuation issue, the system's dynamic equations are rewritten in such a way that some inputs are responsible for trajectory tracking and applying force by the robotic arm on the environment, while others are used to control the hexarotor's state. To control force and position at the end-effector, a combination of a "constrained force controller" and a position controller is employed. Finally, two applied missions are simulated in SimMechanics in the presence of wind disturbances. The simulation results are compared and acceptable performance of the system in interacting with both missions, in the presence of low-speed wind is shown.

Keywords

Aerial Robotic Arm; Multi-body System Modeling; Interaction with Unknown environments; Underactuation; Constrained Force Control

References