A novel approach for aerial manipulation

In the present work we explore the idea of using a fully actuated design for an unmanned aerial vehicle developed for aerial manipulation. To this aim, a Trirotor equipped with a prismatic arm has been adopted. An accurate analysis of the mechanical design and modeling of the vehicle has been performed. Particular attention has been given to the analysis of the destabilization effects caused by the arm motion, during the vehicle flight. A system control, able to stabilize the vehicle in different flight conditions, has been developed and implemented in two different simulation platform, for verification and validation purposes. The results show that the fully actuated design is effectively able to improve the performance of aerial manipulation devices. The proposed approach provides useful insight into both aerial manipulation and UAV fields, suggesting that the number of potential applications of this vehicles will likely grow in the next future.