Nonlinear Geometric Control for Dynamic Aerial Manipulation

Aerial Research Overview

Aerial Research Overview

Complex and cluttered urban environments are subject to rapidly increasing energy and time costs of transportation through jam-packed urban road networks, making aerial delivery an effective solution. Even in developing countries, road networks either do not exist or are inaccessible for significant parts of the year due to seasonal rain, flood, and snow. The introduction of inexpensive micro unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in recent years provides a novel opportunity for easy aerial transportation of loads. While most aerial load transportation research considers the load rigidly attached to a single aerial vehicle, this presents a single point of failure, and moreover the rigid connection of the load dramatically increases the inertia of the system making the system sluggish and incapable of quickly responding to perturbations, which is critical in an urban environment. Our research contributes to the foundations of constrained geometric feedback control through the study of the tight dynamical coupling between the multiple aerial robots and the shared load, dynamics on manifolds, unilateral cable tension constraints, multiple hybrid modes, and physical system limits.

Videos

Publications - Geometric Control

  1. Safety-Critical Geometric Control for Systems on Manifolds Subject to Time-Varying Constraints. Guofan Wu and Koushil Sreenath. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (TAC), in review, 2016. pdf Video
    @article{ TAC2016_Geometric_TimeVarying_CBF,
    author={ Guofan Wu and Koushil Sreenath },
    title={ Safety-Critical Geometric Control for Systems on Manifolds Subject to Time-Varying Constraints },
    journal={ IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (TAC) },
    volume={ },
    number={ },
    pages={ },
    month={ },
    year={ in review, 2016 },
    }
  2. Variation-based Linearization of Nonlinear Systems Evolving on $SO(3)$ and $S^2$. Guofan Wu and Koushil Sreenath. IEEE Access, 3:1592--1604, September 2015. pdf
    @article{ Access2015_VariationLinearization,
    author={ Guofan Wu and Koushil Sreenath },
    title={ Variation-based Linearization of Nonlinear Systems Evolving on $SO(3)$ and $S^2$ },
    journal={ IEEE Access },
    volume={ 3 },
    number={ },
    pages={ 1592--1604 },
    month={ September },
    year={ 2015 },
    }
  3. Safety-Critical and Constrained Geometric Control Synthesis using Control Lyapunov and Control Barrier Functions for Systems Evolving on Manifolds. Guofan Wu and Koushil Sreenath. American Control Conference (ACC), pages 2038--2044, Chicago, IL, July 2015. pdf
    @conference{ ACC2015_Geometric_CBFCLF,
    author={ Guofan Wu and Koushil Sreenath },
    title={ Safety-Critical and Constrained Geometric Control Synthesis using Control Lyapunov and Control Barrier Functions for Systems Evolving on Manifolds },
    booktitle={ American Control Conference (ACC) },
    pages={ 2038--2044 },
    month={ July },
    year={ 2015 },
    address={ Chicago, IL },
    }

Publications - Geometric Control Applied to UAVs

  1. Dynamics and Control of a Quadrotor with a Payload Suspended through an Elastic Cable. Prasanth Kotaru, Guofan Wu, and Koushil Sreenath. American Control Conference (ACC), pages 3906--3913, May 2017. pdf
    @conference{ ACC2017_QuadLoad_ElasticCable,
    author={ Prasanth Kotaru and Guofan Wu and Koushil Sreenath },
    title={ Dynamics and Control of a Quadrotor with a Payload Suspended through an Elastic Cable },
    booktitle={ American Control Conference (ACC) },
    pages={ 3906--3913 },
    month={ May },
    year={ 2017 },
    address={ },
    }
  2. Safety-Critical Control of a Planar Quadrotor. Guofan Wu and Koushil Sreenath. American Control Conference (ACC), pages 2252--2258, Boston, MA, July 2016. pdf Video
    @conference{ ACC2016_Safety_Control_Planar_Quadrotor,
    author={ Guofan Wu and Koushil Sreenath },
    title={ Safety-Critical Control of a Planar Quadrotor },
    booktitle={ American Control Conference (ACC) },
    pages={ 2252--2258 },
    month={ July },
    year={ 2016 },
    address={ Boston, MA },
    }
  3. Safety-Critical Control of a 3D Quadrotor with Range-Limited Sensing. Guofan Wu and Koushil Sreenath. ASME Dynamics Systems and Control Conference (DSCC), Minneapolis, MN, October 2016. pdf Video
    @conference{ DSCC2016_Safety_Control_3D_Quadrotor,
    author={ Guofan Wu and Koushil Sreenath },
    title={ Safety-Critical Control of a 3D Quadrotor with Range-Limited Sensing },
    booktitle={ ASME Dynamics Systems and Control Conference (DSCC) },
    pages={ },
    month={ October },
    year={ 2016 },
    address={ Minneapolis, MN },
    }
  4. Geometric Control of Quadrotors Transporting a Rigid-body Load. Guofan Wu and Koushil Sreenath. IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), pages 6141--6148, Los Angeles, CA, December 2014. pdf
    @conference{ CDC2014,
    author={ Guofan Wu and Koushil Sreenath },
    title={ Geometric Control of Quadrotors Transporting a Rigid-body Load },
    booktitle={ IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) },
    pages={ 6141--6148 },
    month={ December },
    year={ 2014 },
    address={ Los Angeles, CA },
    }
  5. Geometric Control of Cooperating Multiple Quadrotor UAVs with a Suspended Payload. Taeyoung Lee, Koushil Sreenath, and Vijay Kumar. IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), pages 5510--5515, Florence, Italy, December 2013. pdf
    @conference{ CDC2013a,
    author={ Taeyoung Lee and Koushil Sreenath and Vijay Kumar },
    title={ Geometric Control of Cooperating Multiple Quadrotor UAVs with a Suspended Payload },
    booktitle={ IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) },
    pages={ 5510--5515 },
    month={ December },
    year={ 2013 },
    address={ Florence, Italy },
    }
  6. Geometric Control and Differential Flatness of a Quadrotor UAV with a Cable-Suspended Load. Koushil Sreenath, Taeyoung Lee, and Vijay Kumar. IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), pages 2269--2274, Florence, Italy, December 2013. pdf Supplementary Material
    @conference{ CDC2013,
    author={ Koushil Sreenath and Taeyoung Lee and Vijay Kumar },
    title={ Geometric Control and Differential Flatness of a Quadrotor UAV with a Cable-Suspended Load },
    booktitle={ IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) },
    pages={ 2269--2274 },
    month={ December },
    year={ 2013 },
    address={ Florence, Italy },
    }

Publications - UAVs

  1. Determining Minimum and Maximum Number of Agents Required for Planar Cable-Suspended Aerial Manipulation. Henry Hung, Niteesh Sood, and Koushil Sreenath. ASME Dynamics Systems and Control Conference (DSCC), Minneapolis, MN, October 2016. pdf
    @conference{ DSCC2016_MinAgents,
    author={ Henry Hung and Niteesh Sood and Koushil Sreenath },
    title={ Determining Minimum and Maximum Number of Agents Required for Planar Cable-Suspended Aerial Manipulation },
    booktitle={ ASME Dynamics Systems and Control Conference (DSCC) },
    pages={ },
    month={ October },
    year={ 2016 },
    address={ Minneapolis, MN },
    }
  2. Toward Autonomous Avian-Inspired Dynamic Grasping and Perching. Justin Thomas, Giuseppe Loianno, Joseph Polin, Koushil Sreenath, and Vijay Kumar. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, 9(2):025010--025024, June 2014. pdf Video
    @article{ BB2014,
    author={ Justin Thomas and Giuseppe Loianno and Joseph Polin and Koushil Sreenath and Vijay Kumar },
    title={ Toward Autonomous Avian-Inspired Dynamic Grasping and Perching },
    journal={ Bioinspiration & Biomimetics },
    volume={ 9 },
    number={ 2 },
    pages={ 025010--025024 },
    month={ June },
    year={ 2014 },
    }
  3. Toward Image Based Visual Servoing for Aerial Grasping and Perching. Justin Thomas, Giuesppe Loianno, Koushil Sreenath, and Vijay Kumar. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2014. pdf Video
    @conference{ ICRA2014,
    author={ Justin Thomas and Giuesppe Loianno and Koushil Sreenath and Vijay Kumar },
    title={ Toward Image Based Visual Servoing for Aerial Grasping and Perching },
    booktitle={ IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) },
    pages={ },
    month={ },
    year={ 2014 },
    address={ },
    }
  4. Dynamics, Control and Planning for Cooperative Manipulation of Payloads Suspended by Cables from Multiple Quadrotor Robots. Koushil Sreenath and Vijay Kumar. Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), 2013. This paper won the RSS Best Paper Award 2013. pdf
    @conference{ RSS2013,
    author={ Koushil Sreenath and Vijay Kumar },
    title={ Dynamics, Control and Planning for Cooperative Manipulation of Payloads Suspended by Cables from Multiple Quadrotor Robots },
    booktitle={ Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) },
    pages={ },
    month={ },
    year={ 2013 },
    address={ },
    }
  5. Avian-Inspired Grasping for Quadrotor Micro UAVs. Justin Thomas, Joe Polin, Koushil Sreenath, and Vijay Kumar. ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference (IDETC), Portland, OR, August 2013. pdf Video
    @conference{ IDETC2013,
    author={ Justin Thomas and Joe Polin and Koushil Sreenath and Vijay Kumar },
    title={ Avian-Inspired Grasping for Quadrotor Micro UAVs },
    booktitle={ ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference (IDETC) },
    pages={ },
    month={ August },
    year={ 2013 },
    address={ Portland, OR },
    }
  6. Trajectory Generation and Control of a Quadrotor with a Cable-Suspended Load -- A Differentially-Flat Hybrid System. Koushil Sreenath, Nathan Michael, and Vijay Kumar. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2013. pdf
    @conference{ ICRA2013,
    author={ Koushil Sreenath and Nathan Michael and Vijay Kumar },
    title={ Trajectory Generation and Control of a Quadrotor with a Cable-Suspended Load -- A Differentially-Flat Hybrid System },
    booktitle={ IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) },
    pages={ },
    month={ },
    year={ 2013 },
    address={ },
    }