Aerial Manipulator
A robotic platform in which a manipulator arm is mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle, endowing the vehicle with the ability to grasp, place, contact, and manipulate its environment; it involves challenges such as underactuated control and force control.
Timeline (last 90 days)
Aerial manipulators aim to give aerial vehicles the ability to grasp, place, contact, manipulate and otherwise change the environment.
Aerial manipulators can replace manual climbing or scaffolding in high-altitude contact operations (such as bridge inspection, wind turbine blade maintenance, and high-voltage line inspection) to perform actions such as attaching sensors, cleaning, and simple fastening.
Aerial manipulators can be used for sampling and intervention in dangerous environments, such as nuclear radiation zones, chemical leak sites, or the edge of fires, to perform tasks such as grabbing samples, closing valves, and placing plugging devices.
Most current delivery drones can only drop packages or land to deliver; if they had grasping and placing capabilities, they could place packages on balconies, windowsills, or designated shelves.
Maturation of aerial manipulator technology requires progress in three areas: lightweight actuators and force feedback, integrated contact sensing and control, and task-level autonomy.
Over the past decade, consumer drones have driven the cost of flight control and perception extremely low, and collaborative robots have made force-control actuators smaller and cheaper; the intersection of these two curves has lowered the barrier to aerial manipulation.
Aerial manipulators extend the role of drones from sensors to actuators.
All Facts (7)
Most current delivery drones can only drop packages or land to deliver; if they had grasping and placing capabilities, they could place packages on balconies, windowsills, or designated shelves.
50%UnverifiedOver the past decade, consumer drones have driven the cost of flight control and perception extremely low, and collaborative robots have made force-control actuators smaller and cheaper; the intersection of these two curves has lowered the barrier to aerial manipulation.
50%UnverifiedAerial manipulators extend the role of drones from sensors to actuators.
50%UnverifiedAerial manipulators aim to give aerial vehicles the ability to grasp, place, contact, manipulate and otherwise change the environment.
50%UnverifiedMaturation of aerial manipulator technology requires progress in three areas: lightweight actuators and force feedback, integrated contact sensing and control, and task-level autonomy.
50%UnverifiedAerial manipulators can replace manual climbing or scaffolding in high-altitude contact operations (such as bridge inspection, wind turbine blade maintenance, and high-voltage line inspection) to perform actions such as attaching sensors, cleaning, and simple fastening.
50%UnverifiedAerial manipulators can be used for sampling and intervention in dangerous environments, such as nuclear radiation zones, chemical leak sites, or the edge of fires, to perform tasks such as grabbing samples, closing valves, and placing plugging devices.
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