In this paper a three layer control architecture for multiple aerial robotic manipulators is presented. The top layer, on the basis of the desired mission, determines the end-effector desired trajectory for each manipulator, while the middle layer is in charge of computing the motion references in order to track such end-effectors trajectories coming from the upper layer. Finally the bottom layer is a low level motion controller, which tracks the motion references. The overall mission is decomposed in a set of elementary behaviors which are combined together, through the Null Space-based Behavioral (NSB) approach, into more complex compounds behaviors. The proposed framework has been tested conducting an experimental campaign.

In this paper, an impedance control scheme for aerial robotic manipulators is proposed, with the aim of reducing the end-effector interaction forces with the environment. The proposed control has a multi-level architecture, in detail the outer loop is composed by a trajectory generator and an impedance filter that modifies the trajectory to achieve a complaint behaviour in the end-effector space; a middle loop is used to generate the joint space variables through an inverse kinematic algorithm; finally the inner loop is aimed at ensuring the motion tracking. The proposed control architecture has been experimentally tested.

This work tackles the problem of controlling an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle equipped with a robotic Manipulator and it has been developed within the framework of the EU-funded ARCAS (Aerial Robotics Cooperative Assembly System) project. A behavioral control, based on the Null Space-based Behavioral (NSB) paradigm, is proposed to tackle the coordination between the arm and vehicle motions. To this aim, a set of basic functionalities (called elementary behaviors) are designed and combined in a priority order to attain complex tasks (called compound behaviors). The proposed controller has been experimentally validated on a multirotor aircraft with an attached 6 Degree of Freedoms manipulator. Two experimental case studies, involving several compound behaviors, have been reported and the results show the effectiveness of the approach.

A multilayer architecture to control multirotor UAVs equipped with a servo robot arm is proposed in this paper. The main purpose is to control the aerial platform taking into account the presence of the moving manipulator. Three layers are considered in this work. First, a novel mechanism is proposed considering a moving battery to counterweight the statics of the robotic arm. Then, in order to overcome the mechanical limitations of the previous layer, the residual of the arm static effects on the UAV is computed and compensated through the given control thrust and torques. Finally, an estimator of external forces and moments acting on the aerial vehicle is considered and the estimations are fed back to the controller to compensate neglected aerodynamic effects and the arm dynamics. The performance of the proposed architecture has been experimentally evaluated.

In this paper, we introduce an approach called FSBS (Forward Search in Belief Space) for online planning in POMDPs. The approach is based on the RTBSS (Real-Time Belief Space Search) algorithm of [1]. The main departure from the algorithm is the introduction of similarity measures in the belief space. By considering statistical divergence measures, the similarity between belief points in the forward search tree can be computed. Therefore, it is possible to determine if a certain belief point (or one very similar) has been already visited. This way, it is possible to reduce the complexity of the search by not expanding similar nodes already visited in the same depth. This reduction of complexity makes possible the real-time implementation of more complex problems in robots. The paper describes the algorithm, and analyzes different divergence measures. Benchmark problems are used to show how the approach can obtain a ten-fold reduction in the computation time for similar obtained rewards when compared to the original RTBSS. The paper also presents experiments with a quadrotor in a search application.

Fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) rendezvous is necessary for reduced fuel consumption during leader-follower formation flight. We propose a heuristic direct search algorithm that plans a time-optimal path for a follower UAV to rendezvous with a leader whose future path is known and unchanging. The kinematic constraints of the UAV are considered and discontinuities inherent to the minimum-length paths are dealt with. Experiments using quadrotors to emulate fixed-wings, demonstrate the algorithm planning and replanning optimal paths to rendezvous in real-time.

This paper presents an efficient conflict resolution method for multiple aerial vehicles based on speed planning. The problem is assigning a speed profile to each aerial vehicle in real time such that the separation between them is greater than a minimum safety value and the total deviation from the initial planned trajectories is minimized. Also, the arrival time of each aerial vehicle at the end waypoint of the trajectory is taken into account to solve the conflicts. The proposed method involves the use of appropriate airspace discretization. The method consists of two steps: a search tree step, which finds if it exists a solution; and an optimization step by solving a QP-problem, which minimizes a cost function. The paper also presents simulations for several scenarios and experiments that have been carried out in the multivehicle aerial testbed of the Center for Advanced Aerospace Technologies (CATEC).

This paper presents a new data driven utility function for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) mapping and exploiting a wind field. The proposed utility function provides a continuous scale between exploration and exploitation which is dependent on the difference between the current platform energy level and the uncertainty along a planned path. Tests were carried out in a VICON testbed using quadrotors programmed to emulate fixed-wing aircraft. Results show a 47.7% reduction in energy gain loitering time when compared to a pure information gain approach.