Research Progress of Aerial Manipulators for Contact-based Operations

doi:10.3901/JME.2025.03.197

Abstract

Abstract: Aerial manipulators (AMs) are a new type of aerial robots that integrate multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with robotic manipulators. With agile flight and manipulation capabilities simultaneously, AMs can reach high-altitude places to perform transportation or contact-based tasks, which leads to broad application prospects. Contact-based-operation-type AMs are advanced technical equipment for infrastructure maintenance which are urgently needed by many industries including oil and gas, transportation, hydraulic engineering, and electric power. In the past decade, contact-based-operation-type AM technologies have attracted increasing attentions in the field of robotics and automation. This research summarizes and analyzes the past studies on the key technologies for contact-based-operation-type AMs. Firstly, the contact-based operation modes of the AMs are introduced, which are divided into three types according to the interaction characteristics between the end effectors and the target objects, i.e., point contact, sliding contact, and intervention contact. Then, the mechanism design technologies are discussed by comparing some representative prototypes based on the conventional multirotor UAVs, the fully-actuated multirotor UAVs, the interconnected actuated multibody platforms, etc. The control methods are discussed, which include the flight control, the passive compliance control, the active compliance control, and the bilateral teleoperation control. Finally, the future development trends of these key technologies are prospected.

Key words: aerial manipulators, unmanned aerial vehicles, contact-based operation, mechanism design, control method

CLC Number:

V279

SONG Guangming, HAO Shuang, JI Zichao, ZHANG Junyi, SONG Aiguo. Research Progress of Aerial Manipulators for Contact-based Operations[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2025, 61(3): 197-211.

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