Modeling and Control of Multiple Aerial-Ground Manipulator System (MAGMaS) with Load Flexibility

Abstract

The MAGMaS (Multiple Aerial-Ground Manipulator System) was proposed in [1] as a heterogeneous system composed of multiple ground (mobile) manipulators and aerial robots to collaboratively manipulate a long/large-sized object and demonstrated therein for rigid load manipulation. Here, we extend this result of [1] to the case of load manipulation with flexibility, which is crucial for long/slender object manipulation, yet, not considered in [1]. We first provide a rigorous modeling of the load flexibility and its effects on the MAGMaS dynamics. We then propose a novel collaborative control framework for flexible load-tip pose tracking, where the ground manipulator provides slower nominal pose tracking with overall load weight holding, whereas the aerial robot allows for faster vibration suppression with some load weight sharing. We also discuss the issue of controllability stemming from that the aerial robot provides less number of actuation than the modes of the load flexibility; and elucidate some peculiar conditions for this vibration suppression controllability. Simulations are also performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed theory.