An Interaction Control Framework for Regular Aerial Manipulators in Push-and-slide Operations on Moving Objects

Aerial manipulators (AMs) have evolved to fulfill various interaction tasks, such as push-and-slide tasks. However, a push-and-slide operation on a moving object is still challenging for a regular AM because its flying platform is usually a rotorcraft unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-a floating base with complex aerodynamics, under-actuation property, body vibration, etc. This paper proposes an easy-to-implement approach-an interaction control framework based on a remodeling idea of a closed-loop system, allowing an AM to steadily transition from a free flight to a contact flight and slide along a moving object. Then, a decoupled control idea is applied to implement this framework on an AM system. Besides, a contact model and a trajectory planning issue in application scenarios are also studied. Finally, several push-and-slide operation experiments evaluate the proposed interaction control framework. The experimental process and results validate its effectiveness.