Simultaneous trajectory tracking and aerial manipulation using a multi-stage model predictive control

With the exception of a few works, the current approaches to aerial manipulation control do not typically consider the system constraints in the control design process. Also, the issue of closed-loop stability in the presence of system constraints is not thoroughly analyzed. In this paper, a novel multi-stage model predictive control (MPC)-based approach for aerial manipulation is proposed to ensure the closed-loop stability in the presence of model uncertainties and external disturbances, while satisfying the operational constraints. The detailed nonlinear model of a general aerial manipulator, consisting of a quadrotor equipped with a 3 degrees of freedom manipulator, is first developed using the Euler-Lagrange method. Subsequently, a multi-stage disturbance observer-based model predictive control is introduced in the framework of aerial manipulation. Both the aerial grasping and the trajectory tracking tasks can be simultaneously fulfilled using a novel multi-step optimization process within the MPC framework. The closed-loop stability, considering the system constraints, unmodeled dynamics, and external disturbances, is rigorously analyzed based on the Lyapunov theory. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to perform simultaneous trajectory tracking and aerial grasping tasks while ensuring closed-loop stability in the presence of operational constraints. The simulation results demonstrate the satisfactory performance of the proposed control scheme for robust trajectory tracking and aerial manipulation missions at an acceptable computational cost. (C) 2021 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This paper proposes a novel model predictive control-based approach for aerial manipulation, ensuring closed-loop stability in the presence of model uncertainties and external disturbances while satisfying operational constraints. By introducing a multi-stage optimization process, both aerial grasping and trajectory tracking tasks can be simultaneously achieved.