Aerial Co-Manipulation with Cables: The Role of Internal Force for Equilibria, Stability, and Passivity

Marco Tognon (1) , Chiara Gabellieri (1) , Lucia Pallottino (2) , Antonio Franchi (1)

1 LAAS-RIS - Équipe Robotique et InteractionS
2 Centro di Ricerca Enrico Piaggio

This paper considers the study of cooperative manipulation of a cable-suspended load with two generic aerial robots and without explicit communication. The role of the internal force for the asymptotic stability of the beam-position/beam-attitude equilibria is analyzed in depth. Using a nonlinear Lyapunov-based approach, we prove that if a non-zero internal force is chosen then asymptotic stabilization of any desired beam-pose configuration can be achieved with a decentralized and communication-less master-slave admittance controller. If, conversely, a zero internal force is chosen, as done in the majority of the state-of-the-art algorithms, the attitude of the beam is not controllable without communication. Non-zero internal force can be interpreted then as a fundamental factor that enables the use of cables as implicit communication means between the two vehicles in replacement of the explicit ones. Furthermore, the formal proof of the system output-strictly passivity with respect to an energy-like storage function and a certain input-output pair is given. This proves the stability and the robustness of the method even during motion. The theoretical findings are validated through numerical simulations.

Domaines: Robotique [cs.RO]; Systèmes et contrôle [cs.SY]

Marco Tognon, Chiara Gabellieri, Lucia Pallottino, Antonio Franchi. Aerial Co-Manipulation with Cables: The Role of Internal Force for Equilibria, Stability, and Passivity. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2018, 3 (3), pp.2577 - 2583. ⟨10.1109/LRA.2018.2803811⟩. ⟨hal-01551105v3⟩