Title: Towards An Adaptive Compliant Aerial Manipulator for Contact-Based Interaction,
Abstract: As roles for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) continue to diversify, the
ability to sense and interact closely with the environment becomes increasingly
important. Within this paper we report on the initial flight tests of a novel
adaptive compliant actuator which will allow a UAV to carry out such tasks as
the "pick and placement" of remote sensors, structural testing and
contact-based inspection. Three key results are discussed and presented; the
ability to physically compensate impact forces or apply interaction forces by
the UAV through the use of the active compliant manipulator; to be able to
tailor these forces through tuning of the manipulator controller gains; and the
ability to apply a rapid series of physical pulses in order to excite remotely
placed sensors, e.g. vibration sensors. The paper describes the overall system
requirements and system modelling considerations which have driven the concept
through to flight testing. A series of over sixty flight tests have been used
to generate initial results which clearly demonstrate the potential of this new
type of compliant aerial actuator. Results are discussed in line with potential
applications; and a series of future flight tests are described which will
enable us to refine and characterise the overall system.