Resolving the compliance–precision trade-off in long-reach aerial manipulation

Determine design and control strategies that resolve the trade-off between compliance and positional precision in long-reach aerial manipulators that connect a multirotor unmanned aerial vehicle to a remote payload, enabling both disturbance attenuation and accurate manipulation across operational phases.

Background

Long-reach aerial manipulators extend a UAV’s workspace by using long connections to interact with distant targets. Cable-suspended systems attenuate rotor-induced and environmental disturbances but suffer from pendulum-like oscillations that hinder precise control. Conversely, long rigid extensions can improve accuracy but transmit contact forces and disturbances directly to the UAV, risking instability.

The paper introduces a Variable Stiffness Link (VSL) to modulate mechanical coupling between the UAV and payload, aiming to navigate this trade-off by switching between compliant (rope-like) and rigid (rod-like) behaviors. Despite this proposal, the authors explicitly acknowledge that the compliance–precision trade-off remains an open challenge for long-reach aerial manipulation.