Colloquium: Michele Bianconi (C&O)

This research proposes a novel reconfigurable and force-balanced aerial manipulator design for fast pick-and-place tasks. Its force-balancing properties allow for fast end effector movements while minimizing disturbances introduced to the aerial platform. The manipulator is composed of three pantograph legs connecting the end effector to the drone base. Each pantograph is equipped with two moving counter-masses that provide the balancing properties to the manipulator. The counter masses are moved by fast linear actuators allowing the manipulator to be force-balanced for different payloads. Extensive testing, performing end effector trajectory tracking tasks, was performed both on a floating base setup and in flight. The results show the manipulator considerably reduced the reaction forces transmitted to the base and limited the aerial platform's position-tracking error in flight.

Supervisor: Dr. Ir. Salua Hamaza