Grant: Alliance Grants

Unmanned Aerial Manipulators (UAMs) are getting attention world-wide recently. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), when endowed with small robotic arms and grippers, are intended for grasping objects and transporting them, for instance. However, they pose a very challenging system to control. Stable flight of a UAM would be difficult because of: (1) the cross-dynamic-effect between the UAV base and the arm, and (2) the difference in the dynamic responsiveness of the two systems. On the positive side, a UAM would have a larger number of actuators than that in their overall degrees of motion (i.e., the system is over-actuated). In over-actuated systems, the motion coordination can be carried out with the goal to optimize an objective function (e.g., mission completion time, power consumption, flight duration, safety in motion, etc.,).Position and force-compliant motion control of UAMs, when they come in contact with the environment are two research areas that I would like to collaborate with Dr. Valavanis on. His expertise in nonlinear control of aerial vehicles and force-compliant motion control of complex systems would be an asset. This international collaboration will address aforementioned research challenges, which will strengthen the Canadian research community and the leadership role it can play at the national and international levels. Our research results will pave the way towards positioning Canada at the leading edge of understanding and using UAMs with the focus on two application domains, namely forest management and agriculture.