Development of a robotic manipulator to be used in multirotor aerial vehicle

Abstract

This research introduces a 3 DOF manipulator which is capable of mounting on top of a multirotor aerial vehicle (MAV). It was developed by considering desirable factors like weight reduction, reachable workspace, minimizing the inertia variation and center of mass variation. Reachable workspace for the developed manipulator was identified by computer simulations. A mathematical relationship between the manipulator movements and the inertia variation was obtained. Manipulator movements deviate the initial center of mass of the aerial manipulator which will differ the dynamics of the overall multirotor manipulation system. Therefore, the relationship for the manipulator center of mass variation was obtained with respect to a given general cubic polynomial trajectory. Hence, designing a controller for the overall aerial manipulation can be done while considering the center of mass and inertia variation of the manipulator. This approach will be more effective in disturbance compensation of the aerial vehicle.