Design and Control of a Flying Manipulator with a Center of Gravity Adjusting Mechanism

Abstract

In order to solve the problem of COG (Center of Gravity) shift caused by grasping, handling and other tasks of operational flying robot, this research proposes a working flying robot with COG adjustment mechanism. This article also offers a COG adjustment control strategy. Through the kinematics derivation of the manipulator in the operating device, the strategy dynamically calculates the change of the COG position of the compound system during the motion of the manipulator. The paper calculates the rotation angle of the adjusting mechanism by using the torque balance equation, which helps adjust the COG of the composite system. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy, this paper studies the influence of manipulator motion on the COG trajectory and fixed-point hovering position of the composite system with or without COG adjustment control. Outdoor physical experiments are carried out to test the flying robot carrying load. This study also analyzes the stability effect of the adjusting mechanism in the fixed-point hovering operation. The experimental results show that under the control strategy, the COG adjusting mechanism can adjust the offset of the COG of the compound system in real time during the operation of the flying robot, which verifies the effectiveness of the control strategy.