Design of a Flexible Robot Arm for Safe Aerial Physical Interaction

Abstract: This paper introduces a novel compliant mechanism combining lightweight and energy dissipation for aerial physical interaction. Weighting 400~g at take-off, the mechanism is actuated in the forward body direction, enabling precise position control for force interaction and various other aerial manipulation tasks. The robotic arm, structured as a closed-loop kinematic chain, employs two deported servomotors. Each joint is actuated with a single tendon for active motion control in compression of the arm at the end-effector. Its elasto-mechanical design reduces weight and provides flexibility, allowing passive-compliant interactions without impacting the motors' integrity. Notably, the arm's damping can be adjusted based on the proposed inner frictional bulges. Experimental applications showcase the aerial system performance in both free-flight and physical interaction. The presented work may open safer applications for \ac{MAV} in real environments subject to perturbations during interaction.