Development of a semi-autonomous framework for NDT inspection with a tilting aerial platform

TL;DR

This paper presents a semi-autonomous control framework for an aerial manipulator with a tilting drone and robotic arm, enabling precise non-destructive testing of structures through force control and surface interaction.

Contribution

It introduces a novel force-impedance control method for an omnidirectional tilting drone with a robotic arm for NDT inspections.

Findings

Successful force control during surface contact

Repeatability of thickness measurements demonstrated

Effective interaction with complex surfaces

Abstract

This letter investigates the problem of controlling an aerial manipulator, composed of an omnidirectional tilting drone equipped with a five-degrees-of-freedom robotic arm. The robot has to interact with the environment to inspect structures and perform non-destructive measurements. A parallel force-impedance control technique is developed to establish contact with the designed surface with a desired force profile. During the interaction, a pushing phase is required to create a vacuum between the surface and the echometer sensor mounted at the end-effector, to measure the thickness of the interaction surface. Repetitive measures are performed to show the repeatability of the algorithm.