Minimum swing control of a UAV with a cable suspended load

Abstract

A growing interest is devoted by the research community towards aerial service robots, a new generation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that can support human beings in activities such as inspection (AIRobots, http://airobots.ing.unibo.it/) and search and rescue (SHERPA, http://sherpa-project.eu/). In such complex activities, the UAVs are often required to have both perception and action capabilities. This is needed to be able to reach inaccessible or dangerous sites while having the agility of articulated robotic arms for the execution of manipulation tasks such as data acquisition by contact, sample picking or load transportation. This MSc assignment focuses on the multi-body modeling and control of a network of UAVs which are physically interacting among them and with the environment in the accomplish- ment of a task.