Decentralized Adaptive Aerospace Transportation of Unknown Loads Using A Team of Robots

TL;DR

This paper introduces a decentralized adaptive control method enabling multiple aerospace robots to cooperatively transport unknown loads in various gravity environments, demonstrating robustness to robot loss and adaptability to different scenarios.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel decentralized adaptive controller applicable to different aerospace robots for cooperative payload transportation in variable gravity environments.

Findings

Successfully transported payloads in aerial and space scenarios

Adapted to unknown object properties and gravity conditions

Maintained operation despite robot loss during missions

Abstract

Transportation missions in aerospace are limited to the capability of each aerospace robot and the properties of the target transported object, such as mass, inertia, and grasping locations. We present a novel decentralized adaptive controller design for multiple robots that can be implemented in different kinds of aerospace robots. Our controller adapts to unknown objects in different gravity environments. We validate our method in an aerial scenario using multiple fully actuated hexarotors with grasping capabilities, and a space scenario using a group of space tugs. In both scenarios, the robots transport a payload cooperatively through desired three-dimensional trajectories. We show that our method can adapt to unexpected changes that include the loss of robots during the transportation mission.