Separated adaptive control scheme of a rotor-flying manipulator

Rotor flying manipulator (RFM), a new kind of mobile robot system being composed of a rotor flying robot (RFR) and a (several) manipulator(s), has absorbed great attentions in recent years because it enables a RFR to complete active tasks such as mastering and transporting objects. However, steady control of the RFM during both maneuvering and operating is of great difficulty due to the heavy force/moment coupling between the RFR and the manipulator, which introduce high nonlinearity and complexity to the system model. In this paper, a new control scheme of the RFM is proposed to ensure the steady flight. Firstly, the nonlinear mathematical model is derived, which is followed by the coupling analysis to show how the movement of the manipulator influences the whole system's behavior. Subsequently, based on these analyses, a new control scheme is designed with obtainable coupling force/moment. The basic idea of the controller is to take the coupling as a disturbance and separately control the RFR and the manipulator, and the stability is ensured to properly design the controller parameters. Finally, simulations are conducted and the results show the feasibility and validity of the proposed controller.