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Aerial Assistive Payload Transportation Using Quadrotor UAVs with Nonsingular Fast Terminal SMC for Human Physical Interaction

Hussein Naser, Hashim A. Hashim, Mojtaba Ahmadi

TL;DR

The paper addresses the challenge of safe, intuitive human-guided payload transport using two quadrotor UAVs connected to a rigid payload. It couples an admittance controller to translate human-applied forces into reference motion and designs a Non-singular Fast Terminal Sliding Mode Controller (NFTSMC) to robustly track human guidance while stabilizing the coupled dynamics, with Lyapunov-based stability proofs. Key contributions include a rigid-body dynamical model of the dual-quadrotor–payload system, an admittance control law for human interaction, NFTSMC with finite-time convergence and chattering mitigation, and comprehensive simulations in MATLAB, ROS, and Gazebo validating performance. The approach demonstrates feasibility, robustness, and responsiveness for interactive aerial payload transportation with potential industrial impact in dynamic environments.

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to utilizing underactuated quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as assistive devices in cooperative payload transportation task through human guidance and physical interaction. The proposed system consists of two underactuated UAVs rigidly connected to the transported payload. This task involves the collaboration between human and UAVs to transport and manipulate a payload. The goal is to reduce the workload of the human and enable seamless interaction between the human operator and the aerial vehicle. An Admittance-Nonsingular Fast Terminal Sliding Mode Control (NFTSMC) is employed to control and asymptotically stabilize the system while performing the task, where forces are applied to the payload by the human operator dictate the aerial vehicle's motion. The stability of the proposed controller is confirmed using Lyapunov analysis. Extensive simulation studies were conducted using MATLAB, Robot Operating System (ROS), and Gazebo to validate robustness and effectiveness of the proposed controller in assisting with payload transportation tasks. Results demonstrates feasibility and potential benefits utilizing quadrotor UAVs as assistive devices for payload transportation through intuitive human-guided control. Keywords Cooperative payload transportation, Admittance control, Sliding mode control, Quadrotor control

Aerial Assistive Payload Transportation Using Quadrotor UAVs with Nonsingular Fast Terminal SMC for Human Physical Interaction

TL;DR

The paper addresses the challenge of safe, intuitive human-guided payload transport using two quadrotor UAVs connected to a rigid payload. It couples an admittance controller to translate human-applied forces into reference motion and designs a Non-singular Fast Terminal Sliding Mode Controller (NFTSMC) to robustly track human guidance while stabilizing the coupled dynamics, with Lyapunov-based stability proofs. Key contributions include a rigid-body dynamical model of the dual-quadrotor–payload system, an admittance control law for human interaction, NFTSMC with finite-time convergence and chattering mitigation, and comprehensive simulations in MATLAB, ROS, and Gazebo validating performance. The approach demonstrates feasibility, robustness, and responsiveness for interactive aerial payload transportation with potential industrial impact in dynamic environments.

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to utilizing underactuated quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as assistive devices in cooperative payload transportation task through human guidance and physical interaction. The proposed system consists of two underactuated UAVs rigidly connected to the transported payload. This task involves the collaboration between human and UAVs to transport and manipulate a payload. The goal is to reduce the workload of the human and enable seamless interaction between the human operator and the aerial vehicle. An Admittance-Nonsingular Fast Terminal Sliding Mode Control (NFTSMC) is employed to control and asymptotically stabilize the system while performing the task, where forces are applied to the payload by the human operator dictate the aerial vehicle's motion. The stability of the proposed controller is confirmed using Lyapunov analysis. Extensive simulation studies were conducted using MATLAB, Robot Operating System (ROS), and Gazebo to validate robustness and effectiveness of the proposed controller in assisting with payload transportation tasks. Results demonstrates feasibility and potential benefits utilizing quadrotor UAVs as assistive devices for payload transportation through intuitive human-guided control. Keywords Cooperative payload transportation, Admittance control, Sliding mode control, Quadrotor control

Paper Structure

This paper contains 26 sections, 2 theorems, 44 equations, 9 figures, 3 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Motivation
  3. Background
  4. Related Work
  5. Motivation and Contribution
  6. Paper Structure
  7. Preliminaries and Problem Formulation
  8. System Model
  9. Individual Quadrotor Dynamics
  10. Payload Dynamics
  11. System Kinematics
  12. Dynamics of the entire system
  13. Controller Design and Stability Analysis
  14. Sliding surface design
  15. Stability Analysis
  16. ...and 11 more sections

Key Result

Theorem 1

Consider the system dynamics in (xsi_equ) and the proposed NFTSMC surfaces described in Equation (sliding_surface_equ). The proposed controller designed presented in Equation (control_final1_equ) ensures asymptotic stability of the closed loop system in the sense of Lyapunov.

Figures (9)

  • Figure 1: Free body diagram of the entire system components.
  • Figure 2: Schematic block diagram of the control system.
  • Figure 3: Virtual mass-damper-spring system.
  • Figure 4: Reference trajectories generated by the admittance controller proportional to the applied force.
  • Figure 5: The simulation environment setup; (a) The entire aerial vehicle built in ROS and Gazebo environment, (b) MATLAB simulation of the assistive system's motion following human guidance in 3D space as depicted by the red arrows.
  • ...and 4 more figures

Theorems & Definitions (4)

  • Remark 1
  • Remark 2
  • Theorem 1
  • Lemma 1