Robust control and recursive modelling approach for hexarotor manipulator

This article presents the design, realization, modelling, and control of an aerial manipulator robot capable of performing tasks considered difficult and dangerous for humans. We propose a manipulation system that consists of two subsystems: an aerial platform represented by a hexacopter and a 3 degree-of-freedom manipulator arm that is light and easy to integrate into our hexacopter. The modelling approach of our aerial manipulation system is inspired by the dynamics of floating base systems with tree structures. This type of system presents many control challenges due to system asymmetry, continuous change of inertia, the centre of gravity, manipulator arm effects, and so on. For these reasons, a robust control technique based on a sliding mode controller is proposed to achieve a three-dimensional trajectory-tracking objective. In order to show the effectiveness of the proposed strategy, numerical simulations have been performed in many scenarios.