Aerial Robot Control in Close Proximity to Ceiling: A Force Estimation-based Nonlinear MPC
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.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1907.13594,
title = {Aerial Robot Control in Close Proximity to Ceiling: A Force Estimation-based Nonlinear MPC},
author = {Basaran Bahadir Kocer and Mehmet Efe Tiryaki and Mahardhika Pratama and Tegoeh Tjahjowidodo and Gerald Gim Lee Seet},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.13594},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
Accepted to IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2019)