Stabilization and Optimal Trajectory Generation for a Compact Aerial Manipulation System with a Delta-type Parallel Robot

This paper presents the design, modeling, and control of a quadcopter equipped with a Delta-type parallel manipulator. Such systems present demanding challenges in both control theory and task planning, which are addressed with novel mechanical features, modern flight controllers, and optimal trajectory generation. They are primarily designed for versatile indoor pick-and-place tasks where the characteristics of the proposed solution introduce useful kinematic properties. We explore these traits to address critical deficiencies found in previous approaches. First, we introduce and discuss the mechanical design of the coupled system. Second, we derive the kinematic and dynamic relationships between all bodies. Third, we develop the flight controller, where the baseline, feedforward, and adaptive components are combined and used in unison with an optimal trajectory generation algorithm. Finally, we present simulation results which reflect the feasibility of the concepts.