Design of an Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Physical Interaction with the Environment
Design of an Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Physical Interaction with the Environment
复制标题
与环境进行物理交互的自主无人机设计
DOI：
10.25394/pgs.8967932.v1
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发表时间：
2019
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Daniel R. McArthur
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Daniel R. McArthur
事实证明，与机载摄像头配合使用的无人机 (UAV) 在许多应用中都是有用的工具，包括航空摄影、精准农业以及搜救行动。同样，能够与环境进行物理交互的无人机已经显示出巨大的潜力，可以帮助人们比自己更安全、更高效地执行危险或耗时的任务。然而，由于机载计算和电池寿命的限制以及复杂的飞行动力学，使用无人机与环境进行物理交互仍然是一个正在发展的研究领域。考虑到这些限制，这项工作的主要目标是（1）开发一种新的空中操纵无人机平台，（2）为该平台开发模块化硬件和软件，以实现特定任务的自主执行，以及（3）开发一种视觉目标跟踪方法，以在非结构化的现实环境中实现自主空中操纵任务的稳健性能。为此，这里介绍了 Interacting-BoomCopter 无人机 (I-BC) 的设计，作为一种新的空中操纵平台。 I-BC 具有简单的三轴飞行器框架、用于产生水平力的单个附加执行器以及轻型模块化末端执行器，旨在平衡执行空中操纵任务的效率和功能，并且能够执行各种任务，例如在难以到达的地方安装传感器以及打开小门或面板。机载摄像头、力和距离传感器以及功能强大的单板计算机 (SBC) 使 I-BC 能够在非结构化环境中自主运行，在大规模基础设施检查、工业检查和维护以及核净化工作等领域具有潜在的应用前景。
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), when paired with an onboard camera, have proven to be useful tools in many applications, including aerial photography, precision agriculture, and search and rescue operations. Likewise, UAVs capable of physically interacting with the environment have shown great potential to help people perform dangerous, or time-consuming tasks more safely and efficiently than they could on their own. However, due to onboard computation and battery life limitations and complex flight dynamics, using UAVs to physically interact with the environment is still a developing area of research. Considering these limitations, the primary goals of this work are to (1) develop a new UAV platform for aerial manipulation, (2) develop modular hardware and software for the platform to enable specific tasks to be performed autonomously, and (3) develop a visual target tracking method to enable robust performance of autonomous aerial manipulation tasks in unstructured, real-world environments. To that end, the design of the Interacting-BoomCopter UAV (I-BC) is presented here as a new platform for aerial manipulation. With a simple tricopter frame, a single additional actuator for generating horizontal forces, and lightweight, modular end-effectors, the I-BC aims to balance efficiency and functionality in performing aerial manipulation tasks, and is able to perform various tasks such as mounting sensors in hard-to-reach places, and opening small doors or panels. An onboard camera, force and distance sensors, and a powerful single board computer (SBC) enable the I-BC to operate autonomously in unstructured environments, with potential applications in areas such as large-scale infrastructure inspection, industrial inspection and maintenance, and nuclear decontamination efforts.