Control and Coordination of Aerial Robots in Emerging Applications

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Applications of multi-rotor drones has grown considerably in recent years because of their vertical take-off/landing capability, high maneuverability, and low development cost. However, today's conventional quad-rotors and their controllers can be inadequate for some of these emerging applications. To address this gap, this research seeks new advanced control and coordination methods for nonconventional aerial robots, multi-rotor drone(s) with or without a robotic arm. Aerial robots pose unique control challenges. Contributing to these are their complex and often underactuated dynamics, their operating in 3D unstructured spaces co-occupied by other agents and obstacles, difficult localization particularly in GPS-denied environments, and safety-critical nature of their operation. The research will be pursued in three interdependent thrusts areas of: (i) Aerial manipulation (ii) Scalable aerial transportation, and (iii) Human-in-the-loop semi-autonomous control. The work in aerial manipulation will be concerned with control methods for safe and stable operation of aerial manipulators in free space and in contact. These methods should account for many important operational constraints of aerial manipulators that are often ignored in the literature. This should improve their performance, robust stability, and operational reliability. The research in aerial transportation will focus on the development of new controllers for a scalable transport system in which multiple quad-rotors would cooperatively carry a cable-suspended payload. The new controllers should be robust to external disturbances such as wind, be able to operate in the event of partial failure in the drone's hardware/software and communication systems, and be energy efficient. The third research thrust will explore new control strategies for human-in-the-loop semi-autonomous operation of aerial robots. The aim is to develop shared control strategies that will enable an expert operator to take part in the operation of one or more aerial robots in a complex task environment. Autonomous control modules will assist the operator for subtasks such as avoiding collisions and maintaining a desired drones' formation. In long term, the results of this research should facilitate the use of multi-rotor drones in emerging applications including those in search and rescue, inspection and maintenance of infrastructure, mining, warehouse operation, delivery of goods and medicine, firefighting, law enforcement, and defence. Canada's ambition to become a global player in the fields of autonomous systems and artificial intelligence is expected to fuel investments in the area of aerial robotics. Some Canadian companies have already ventured into this space and more are expected to follow in the future. This research program will contribute to the training of highly qualified personnel with the specific skill set needed for employment in this rapidly growing industry.