Position Estimation of the Drone Based on the Tensile Force of Cooperatively Towed Tube

Recently, some spraying systems have been proposed that use a drone towing a liquid tube. However, towable tube length is limited due to the payload of a drone, and there is a possibility of liquid leakage from the tube or that the drone will fall. To solve these problems, this research proposes a liquid feeding system where the tube and cables are towed cooperatively by multiple drones. By using multiple drones, the length of the towable tube can be longer, and the working space can be enlarged. In addition, if the power cable is also towed together with the tube the amount of working time will be increased because a battery will not be necessary. In particular, in this paper, it verifies that it is possible to estimate the position of the drone by measuring the tensile force vector of the cooperative towed tube with the tensile force sensor attached to the other drone. In result, we showed that the position of the end points of the tube that was cooperatively towed by the drones can be estimated by using the tensile force sensor attached to the drone.