Most existing works on cable-suspended payload manipulation entail the use of multirotor UAVs as flying carriers, exploiting their hovering capabilities and maneuverability. Besides these benefits, multirotor suffer from limited endurance, which restricts long-distance transport.
Convertible and fixed-wing UAVs are characterized by longer endurance thanks to their aerodynamic efficiency; however, they must maintain a non-zero forward speed for efficient flight, which introduces challenges in the accurate pose control of a cable-suspended load.
Recent work has proposed a paradigm shift in aerial robotic cooperative manipulation by studying the use of efficient non-stopping aerial robots for the control of a cable-suspended object [1, 2, 3]
This thesis, carried out at the University of Twente in collaboration with ENAC (Toulouse, France), answers the research question:
How much energy is spared when using convertible UAVs to manipulate a cable-suspended load instead of using multirotor UAVs?
The thesis follows these steps:
- The candidate uses the simulator developed at ENAC to simulate a cooperative load transport task using convertible UAVs (case 1).
- The candidate substitutes the available convertible UAV model with a multirotor UAV of realistic and mission-appropriate size and payload, and simulates the same task (case 2).
- The candidate compared the energy used in the two cases. Other relevant metrics, such as average and maximum position and attitude errors of the manipulated object, are compared, too.
- (optional) The candidate simulates disturbances such as sensor noise, wind, etc., and assesses the robustness of the load pose control in the two cases above.
References
[1] "On the Existence of Static Equilibria of a Cable-Suspended Load with Non-stopping Flying Carriers" C Gabellieri, A Franchi. The 2024 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS) https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.19315
[2] "Coordinated Trajectories for Non-stop Flying Carriers Holding a Cable-Suspended Load" C Gabellieri, A Franchi https://arxiv.org/pdf/2503.03481
[3] “Experimental demonstration of the lifting capability of a towed payload using multiple fixed-wing uavs” S. Quenneville, F. Th´erien, J. Verrette, D. Rancourt, A. Walsh, J.-P. L. Bigué , R. L. Engineer, and P. Feyel. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371383180_Experimental_Demonstration_of_the_Lifting_Capability_of_a_Towed_Payload_Using_Multiple_Fixed-wing_UAVs