arXiv subjects

Simone D'Angelo

Publications and source records attributed to Simone D'Angelo.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

AEROBULL: A Center-of-Mass Displacing Aerial Vehicle Enabling Efficient High-Force Interaction

In various industrial sectors, inspection and maintenance tasks using UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) require substantial force application to ensure effective adherence and stable contact, posing significant challenges to existing solutions. This paper addresses these industrial needs by introducing a novel lightweight aerial platform (3.12kg) designed to exert high pushing forces on non-horizontal surfaces. To increase maneuverability, the proposed platform incorporates tiltable rotors with 5-DoF (Degree of Freedom) actuation. Moreover, it has an innovative shifting-mass mechanism that dynamically adjusts the system's CoM (Center of Mass) during contact-based task execution. A compliant EE (End-Effector) is applied to ensure a smooth interaction with the work surface. We provide a detailed study of the UAV's overall system design, hardware integration of the developed physical prototype, and software architecture of the proposed control algorithm. Physical experiments were conducted to validate the control design and explore the force generation capability of the designed platform via a pushing task. With a total mass of 3.12kg, the UAV exerted a maximum pushing force of above 28N being almost equal to its gravity force. Furthermore, the experiments illustrated the benefits of having displaced CoM by benchmarking with a fixed CoM configuration.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2024

Development of a semi-autonomous framework for NDT inspection with a tilting aerial platform

This letter investigates the problem of controlling an aerial manipulator, composed of an omnidirectional tilting drone equipped with a five-degrees-of-freedom robotic arm. The robot has to interact with the environment to inspect structures and perform non-destructive measurements. A parallel force-impedance control technique is developed to establish contact with the designed surface with a desired force profile. During the interaction, a pushing phase is required to create a vacuum between the surface and the echometer sensor mounted at the end-effector, to measure the thickness of the interaction surface. Repetitive measures are performed to show the repeatability of the algorithm.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2024

Dynamic Center-of-Mass Displacement in Aerial Manipulation: An Innovative Platform Design

Aerial manipulators are increasingly used in contact-based industrial applications, where tasks like drilling and pushing require platforms to exert significant forces in multiple directions. To enhance force generation capabilities, various approaches, such as thrust vectoring and perching, have been explored. In this article, we introduce a novel approach by investigating the impact of varied CoM (Center of Mass) locations on an aerial manipulation system's force exertion. Our proposed platform features a design with a dynamically displacing CoM, enabling a smooth transition between free flight and high-force interactions supported by tilting back rotors. We provide detailed modeling and control strategies for this design and validate its feasibility through a series of physical experiments. In a pushing task, the proposed system, weighing 3.12kg, was able to stably exert over 28N of force on a work surface-nearly equivalent to its gravitational force-achieved solely through the tilting of its back rotors. Additionally, we introduce a new factor to evaluate the force generation capabilities of aerial platforms, allowing for a quantitative comparison with state-of-the-art systems, which demonstrates the advantages of our proposed approach.

cs.RO↗