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arXiv · 1907.13594

Aerial Robot Control in Close Proximity to Ceiling: A Force Estimation-based Nonlinear MPC

Basaran Bahadir Kocer·Mehmet Efe Tiryaki·Mahardhika Pratama·Tegoeh Tjahjowidodo·Gerald Gim Lee Seet
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Abstract

Being motivated by ceiling inspection applications via unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which require close proximity flight to surfaces, a systematic control approach enabling safe and accurate close proximity flight is proposed in this work. There are two main challenges for close proximity flights: (i) the trust characteristics varies drastically for the different distance from the ceiling which results in a complex nonlinear dynamics; (ii) the system needs to consider physical and environmental constraints to safely fly in close proximity. To address these challenges, a novel framework consisting of a constrained optimization-based force estimation and an optimization-based nonlinear controller is proposed. Experimental results illustrate that the performance of the proposed control approach can stabilize UAV down to 1 cm distance to the ceiling. Furthermore, we report that the UAV consumes up to 12.5% less power when it is operated 1 cm distance to ceiling, which is promising potential for more battery-efficient inspection flights.

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Basaran Bahadir Kocer, Mehmet Efe Tiryaki, Mahardhika Pratama, Tegoeh Tjahjowidodo, Gerald Gim Lee Seet. 2019-07-31. Aerial Robot Control in Close Proximity to Ceiling: A Force Estimation-based Nonlinear MPC. https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.13594

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