A New Quadrotor Manipulation System: Modeling and Point-to-point Task Space Control

This article introduces a novel quadrotor manipulation system that consists of 2-link manipulator with unique topology attached to the bottom of a quadrotor. This new system presents a solution for the limitations found in the current quadrotor manipulation system. Unlike the current system, the proposed system enables the end effector to achieve an arbitrary position and orientation with minimum possible number of actuators/links. System kinematics and dynamics are derived. A new closed form inverse kinematics algorithm is presented such that a task space motion controller can be implemented. To study the feasibility of the proposed system, a quadrotor with high enough payload, to add the 2-link manipulator, is designed and constructed. The system controller is designed based on three control techniques: Feedback Linearization based PID (FL-PID), Direct Fuzzy Logic Control (DFLC), and Fuzzy Model Reference Learning Control (FMRLC). Simulation framework is implemented in MATLAB/SIMULINK based on real system parameters to emulate a realistic setup. These controllers are tested under the effect of picking/placing a payload and changing the operating region. Results enlighten the system feasibility, the superior performance of the FMRLC, and the efficiency of the proposed inverse kinematics algorithm.