Aerial Robotics for Physical Interaction and Manipulation
AA 2024-25

Aims: 

This course delves into the advanced dynamics and control of multirotor aerial robots, encompassing both conventional platforms and those equipped with manipulating arms. It explores the modeling and control of generic multirotor configurations, including those with varying numbers, orientations, and vectoring of propellers. The course investigates diverse control strategies, emphasizing force-moment decoupling, fail-safe robustness, and vulnerability analysis. Furthermore, it delves into the intricate domain of physical interaction and manipulation using aerial robots. Key areas of focus include:
- Modeling and actuation properties of aerial manipulators.
- Cooperative aerial manipulation and teleoperation.
- Physical interaction control techniques, including impedance/admittance control and sensorless approaches.
- Redundancy exploitation and optimization-based control.
- Human-aerial robot interaction and cable-suspended manipulation.
- Tethered aerial systems and their control challenges.
The course draws heavily upon the research results obtained over the years by the researchers of our Robotics group in several European projects such as ARCAS, Aeroarms, Aerial-core, and several other national projects. This provides students with insights into cutting-edge research and real-world applications of advanced multirotor robotic systems.
The course aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the theoretical and practical aspects of advanced multirotor systems, equipping students with the knowledge to design, analyze, and control these complex aerial robots for a wide range of applications.

Course Schedule & Material: 

L1 - 28/02/2025 - Course Introduction - Lecture Material (LM):

L2 - 03/03/2025 - Modeling and control of generic multirotor platforms (part 1) - Lecture Material (LM):

• LM 2.1  Aerial Robotics Lecture Notes (in the shared google drive)

• LM 2.2 Design of Multirotor Aerial Vehicles: a Taxonomy Based on Input Allocation 

L3 -  07/03/2025 - Discussion and debate on L2 - Kialo links spreadsheet 

L4 -  10/03/2025 - Modeling and control of generic multirotor platforms (part 2) - Lecture Material (LM):

• LM 4.1 Fundamental Actuation Properties of Multi-rotors:  Force-Moment Decoupling and Fail-safe Robustness 

• LM 4.2 A Novel Robust Hexarotor Capable of Static Hovering in Presence of Propeller Failure 

L5 -  14/03/2025 -  Modeling and control of generic multirotor platforms (part 3) - Lecture Material (LM):

• LM 5.1: FAST-Hex—A Morphing Hexarotor: Design, Mechanical Implementation, Control and Experimental Validation 

• LM 5.2: Omnidirectional Aerial Vehicles With Unidirectional Thrusters: Theory, Optimal Design, and Control, 

• LM 5.3: Modelling, Analysis, and Control of OmniMorph: an Omnidirectional Morphing Multi-rotor UAV 

• LM 5.4: Full-Pose Tracking Control for Aerial Robotic Systems with Laterally Bounded Input Force 

• LM 5.5: Nonlinear Model Predictive Control with Enhanced Actuator Model for Multi-Rotor Aerial Vehicles with Generic Designs 

• LM 5.6: Motor and Perception Constrained NMPC for Torque-Controlled Generic Aerial Vehicles, 

• LM 5.7: Omni-Plus-Seven (O7+): An Omnidirectional Aerial Prototype with a Minimal Number of Unidirectional Thrusters 

L6 -  17/03/2024 - Physical Interaction and Manipulation with Aerial Robots (part 1) - Lecture Material (LM):

• LM 6.1  Past, Present and Future of Aerial Robotic Manipulators 

• LM 6.2 6D interaction control with aerial robots:  The flying end-effector paradigm 

L7 -  21/03/2025 - Physical Human-Aerial Robot Interaction - Lecture Material (LM):

• LM 7.1  Toward Physical Human-Robot Interaction Control with Aerial Manipulators: Compliance, Redundancy Resolution, and Input Limits 

• LM 7.2 Physical Human-Aerial Robot Interaction and Collaboration: Exploratory Results and Lessons Learned 

L8 -  24/03/2025 - Physical Interaction and Manipulation with Aerial Robots (part 2) - Lecture Material (LM):

• LM 8.1 Direct Force Feedback Control and Online Multi-task Optimization for Aerial Manipulators 

L9 -  28/03/2025 - The True Role Accelerometer in Quadrotor Flight - Lecture Material (LM):

• LM 9.1 Seminar Lecture slides ( in the google drive)

• LM 9.2 Differential Flatness of Quadrotor Dynamics Subject to Rotor Drag for Accurate Tracking of High-Speed Trajectories 

L10 -  31/03/202 - Cable suspended manipulation with multirotors for manipulating large objects (part 1)  - Lecture Material (LM):

• LM 10,1  Cooperative transportation of a payload using quadrotors: A reconfigurable cable-driven parallel robot 

• LM 10,2  Full-pose Manipulation Control of a Cable-suspended load  with Multiple UAVs under Uncertainties 

L11 -  04/04/2025 - Cable suspended manipulation with multirotors for manipulating large objects (part 2)  - Lecture Material (LM):

• LM 11.1 Theory and Applications for Control of Aerial Robots in Physical Interaction Through Tethers 

L12 -  07/04/2025 - Presentation of Possible Projects - Lecture Material (LM):

• Course Projects will be posted here soon

L13 -  11/04/2025 - Cable suspended manipulation with multirotors for manipulating large objects (part 3)  - Lecture Material (LM):

• LM 13.1  Equilibria, stability, and sensitivity for the aerial suspended beam robotic system  subject to parameter uncertainty 

Detailed description of course contents: 

The course is divided in three main topics:

1. Modeling and control of generic multirotor platforms 

• Equation of motion of generic multirotor platforms (generic number, orientation, and vectoring of propellers)

• Allocation-based taxonomy: fully-actuated, omnidirectional, morphing, etc. with 

• Relevant examples: the tilthex, the holocopter, the fasthex, the omnicopter, the omnimorph

• Basic control methods for generic multirotors

• Force-moment decoupling classification

• Fail-safe robustness and vulnerability to failures

• Fail safe robustness of alpha-beta-gamma parametrized hexarotors

2. Physical Interaction and Manipulation with Aerial Robots 

   • Introduction, motivation, and industrial use cases

   • Comprehensive literature overview

   • Evolution and taxonomies of aerial robots for physical interaction

   • Modelling and actuation properties

   • Cooperative aerial manipulation

   • Teleoperated aerial manipulators

   • Physical interaction control

     1. Flying end-effector paradigm

        1. Impedance/admittance control

        2. Sensorless approaches with wrench observers 

        3. Practitioner guidelines ( filtering, thresholding, etc..) 

        4. Software pipeline for physical interaction experiments

     2. Redundancy exploitation with articulated arms

     3. Optimization based control of aerial manipulators for handling input constraints

   • Human-aerial robot physical interaction

3. Cable suspended manipulation with teams of multirotors for manipulating large objects 

   • Modelling:

     1. Simplistic cables: Kinematics and Dynamics, analogy with grasping

     2. Elastic cables

     3. Elastoflexible cables 

     4. Tethered Aerial systems

   • Differentially flat outputs in aerial cable-suspended and tethered aerial systems

   • Examples: Single cable per robot examples, double cable per robot: Flycrane.

   • Control: 

     1. Inverse kinematic and dynamics approaches with exploitation

     2. Robust control for handling parametric uncertainty: and INDI

     3. Communication-less control based on internal force 

     4. Flatness based control of tethered systems

   • Trajectory generation for input-constrained systems

   • Trajectory generation for non-stopping flying carrier

Prerequisites: This module has no strict prerequisites. However, it is strongly recommended to have acquaintance with the basic topics of Robotics 1 and Robotics 2.

ECTS credits for this module: 3 credits (out of 12 or 6 credits, respectively for Elective in Robotics or Control Problems in Robotics)

Schedule

Every Monday 14:00-17:00 - DIAG A7
Every Friday 13:00-15:00 - DIAG A6
Period: first part of second semester (February - March 2025; 4 to 6 weeks)
Begin: 28/02/2025
End: 11/04/2025

Shared Folder

Shared folder link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Q4gfaZDnMLczoJrfcqavfLP4g7APG_qw

How to get access to the folder: join the google group (see below)

Google group

A Google group has been created to post questions about the content of the lectures, exchange information and discuss the topics of the module in general.  New registrations are not accepted after the end of the lectures. Groups of past years are still active (but no new registrations are considered as well).
URL: https://groups.google.com/a/diag.uniroma1.it/g/aerial-robotics-module-2024-25/
Email: aerial-robotics-module-2024-25@diag.uniroma1.it
Access: Restricted to Sapienza students only. Please request admission at the URL using ONLY your institutional email address @studenti.uniroma1.it. When applying be sure to enter i) your first and last name as "Display Name", as well as ii) your Master program[Control Engineering (MCER) or AI & Robotics (MARR)], iii) your current year of enrollment in the course of study, and which course you have in your study plan [ Control Problems in Robotics (CPR, 6 credits) or Elective in Robotics (EiR), 12 credits], together with any other useful information, as "Reason for joining". Incomplete requests will be discarded without further notice.
How to complete the credits for this module
The course evaluation will be via an oral exam: 

• Presentation and debate of a recent work in the literature assigned by the teacher + simulation results for students selecting a project modality

Students are highly encouraged to attend the lectures. if a student attends less than 75% of the lectures, Extra question(s) taken from missed lectures will be asked in the exam. 

Work can be done alone or in groups, typically by two students for presentations and three students for short projects. Presentations and projects should be completed as early as possible, but no later than by the end of December (of the solar year of attendance).
Note that in order to obtain the 12 credits of Elective in Robotics, it is necessary to complete all four modules (each of 3 credits). Altogether, each student should give two (2) presentations and complete two (2) short projects. For more details, see the main page of Elective in Robotics.
Similarly, in order to obtain the 6 credits of Control Problems in Robotics, each student has to complete two modules (each of 3 credits), giving one presentation and one short project. For more details, see the main page of Control Problems in Robotics.

Booking of exams

Please check the information in the main page of the Elective in Robotics or Control Problems in Robotics courses.
In order to get the final grade you only need one registration. Book the exam when you have acquired the credits of all modules.

Master thesis opportunities 

if you are seeking a master thesis project in a topic related to the course, contact Prof. Franchi directly in person or via email at any time to discuss a potential project. Note that there is the possibility to do part of the thesis abroad in the Netherlands