Modeling and control for unmanned helicopter based aerial manipulator

Unmanned Helicopter based Aerial Manipulator (UH-AM) is a new conception of aerial robots with arms, which changes the traditional searching RUAVs into operating aerial robots. The same with traditional robotic arms, the end-effector's control accuracy is also important for precise operation in hovering mode, however, it cannot be achievable easily because of the relative disturbance between UH and AM. In this research, the overall dynamics model is firstly developed. Based on the proposed model, to compensate for the disturbance from relative dynamics with rotor system's control delay, a predictive controller is designed to eliminate the errors of position and attitude of the end-effector. Simulation results show its effectiveness in precise air-operation under inner/external disturbance.