Aerial Picking and Delivery of Magnetic Objects with MAVs

TL;DR

This paper presents a fully integrated, energy-efficient MAV system capable of autonomously picking up and delivering objects with partly ferrous surfaces, using a novel electro-permanent magnetic gripper and advanced control algorithms.

Contribution

Development of a novel electro-permanent magnetic gripper combined with detection and control algorithms for autonomous MAV object manipulation.

Findings

System successfully grasps stationary and moving objects

Handles various shapes and external disturbances

Effective in precise object placement scenarios

Abstract

Autonomous delivery of goods using a MAV is a difficult problem, as it poses high demand on the MAV's control, perception and manipulation capabilities. This problem is especially challenging if the exact shape, location and configuration of the objects are unknown. In this paper, we report our findings during the development and evaluation of a fully integrated system that is energy efficient and enables MAVs to pick up and deliver objects with partly ferrous surface of varying shapes and weights. This is achieved by using a novel combination of an electro-permanent magnetic gripper with a passively compliant structure and integration with detection, control and servo positioning algorithms. The system's ability to grasp stationary and moving objects was tested, as well as its ability to cope with different shapes of the object and external disturbances. We show that such a system can be successfully deployed in scenarios where an object with partly ferrous parts needs to be gripped and placed in a predetermined location.