Design of PrisMAV: An Omnidirectional Aerial Manipulator based on a 3-PUU Parallel Mechanism

The study of aerial robots capable to interact with their environment, also known as aerial manipulation, is a particularly new field in robotics research. Most existing solutions of aerial manipulators utilize commercially available multirotors as base flying platforms which are often extended by a suitable robotic arm. Although this design approach allows for fast prototyping, it impedes the development of a well-composed system where the base and the manipulator are designed conjointly. In contrast, this work presents a novel aerial manipulator featuring a 3-PUU (prismatic universal universal) parallel mechanism making up the structure of the flying platform. The key idea of using a parallel mechanism comes from its ability to quickly compensate positional errors of the platform while keeping the inertia of the moving parts low. To enable manipulation from any pose, PrisMAV is further designed to be omnidirectional by utilizing four tiltable rotor groups. The concept was successfully verified in a pick and place mission by grasping and releasing an object from above and from the side. The end-effector position tracking of PrisMAV is proven to be more accurate compared to a hypothetical fixed end-effector. The final result is a full proof of concept of an omnidirectional aerial manipulator.