Contact-Based Bridge Inspection Multirotors: Design, Modeling, and Control Considering the Ceiling Effect

Jimenez-Cano, Antonio E.; Sanchez-Cuevas, Pedro J.; Grau, Pedro; Ollero, A.; Heredia, Guillermo

doi:10.1109/lra.2019.2928206

Cited by 66 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…We chose this scenario because it is particularly hard for an observer to accurately estimate the distance from a featureless object in front of them. Nonetheless, ordinary tasks such as inspection and navigation in confined environments require to approach walls to examine them while preventing collisions [29]. Task 2 and 3 consist, respectively, of going through a lateral or vertical opening, placed perpendicularly to the user's sight.…”

Section: Qlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the recent scientific and industrial interest for motion-based interfaces and haptic feedback for the control of aerial robots, a study of the real usability of such systems in real-world cases is still lacking. To fill this gap, we present a systematic approach to provide more insights on how effective is controlling a drone through hand motion and the role of haptics in augmenting the performance in particular tasks, which are fundamental in several scenarios such as search-and-rescue or inspection [29]- [31]. In this paper, we first investigate the effects of a paradigm shift for robot teleoperation consisting of mapping the position of the user's hand into a position command for the robot, as in Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hand-worn Haptic Interface for Drone Teleoperation

Macchini

Havy

Weber

et al. 2020

2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

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Drone teleoperation is usually accomplished using remote radio controllers, devices that can be hard to master for inexperienced users. Moreover, the limited amount of information fed back to the user about the robot's state, often limited to vision, can represent a bottleneck for operation in several conditions. In this work, we present a wearable interface for drone teleoperation and its evaluation through a user study. The two main features of the proposed system are a data glove to allow the user to control the drone trajectory by hand motion and a haptic system used to augment their awareness of the environment surrounding the robot. This interface can be employed for the operation of robotic systems in line of sight (LoS) by inexperienced operators and allows them to safely perform tasks common in inspection and searchand-rescue missions such as approaching walls and crossing narrow passages with limited visibility conditions. In addition to the design and implementation of the wearable interface, we performed a systematic study to assess the effectiveness of the system through three user studies (n = 36) to evaluate the users' learning path and their ability to perform tasks with limited visibility. We validated our ideas in both a simulated and a realworld environment. Our results demonstrate that the proposed system can improve teleoperation performance in different cases compared to standard remote controllers, making it a viable alternative to standard Human-Robot Interfaces.

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Section: Qlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hand-worn Haptic Interface for Drone Teleoperation

Macchini

Havy

Weber

et al. 2020

2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

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“…Nowadays, there are three main approaches for infrastructure contact inspection. One of them consists of using a multirotor which can stick firmly to the bridge beams and place a reflector prism in contact with the bridge surface to measure beam deformation using a robotic Total Station on ground, which can measure the position of the prism with millimeter accuracy [ 21 ]. The main advantage of this approach is that the measurements can achieve the required accuracy for structural assessment since the robot is completely still while the inspection measurements are collected.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aerodynamic effects can arise also in these kinds of scenarios and applications, in which the aerial robot is required to operate in the surrounding of the infrastructure. Previous works have shown how the aerodynamic ceiling effect can change the performance of a multirotor when it approaches a surface from the underside [ 41 , 42 ] and usually requires using a specific controller [ 21 , 43 ]. However, in this specific work, the system will operate far enough from the infrastructure not to be affected by this aerodynamic disturbance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fully-Actuated Aerial Manipulator for Infrastructure Contact Inspection: Design, Modeling, Localization, and Control

Sanchez-Cuevas

González-Morgado

Cortes

et al. 2020

Sensors

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This paper presents the design, modeling and control of a fully actuated aerial robot for infrastructure contact inspection as well as its localization system. Health assessment of transport infrastructure involves measurements with sensors in contact with the bridge and tunnel surfaces and the installation of monitoring sensing devices at specific points. The design of the aerial robot presented in the paper includes a 3DoF lightweight arm with a sensorized passive joint which can measure the contact force to regulate the force applied with the sensor on the structure. The aerial platform has been designed with tilted propellers to be fully actuated, achieving independent attitude and position control. It also mounts a “docking gear” to establish full contact with the infrastructure during the inspection, minimizing the measurement errors derived from the motion of the aerial platform and allowing full contact with the surface regardless of its condition (smooth, rough, ...). The localization system of the aerial robot uses multi-sensor fusion of the measurements of a topographic laser sensor on the ground and a tracking camera and inertial sensors on-board the aerial robot, to be able to fly under the bridge deck or close to the bridge pillars where GNSS satellite signals are not available. The paper also presents the modeling and control of the aerial robot. Validation experiments of the localization system and the control system, and with the aerial robot inspecting a real bridge are also included.

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“…These aerodynamic effects have been previously studied [11] [12][13] [14] and also by the authors. In [15] a general overview of these kinds of effects was presented and some of them were specifically studied for different applications like the ground effect in [16] or ceiling effect in [6] [17]. These previous studies have shown that it is usually necessary to model this aerodynamic behaviour to guarantee that the final application produces a results which are good enough even flying very close to obstacles.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerodynamic Effects in Multirotors Flying Close to Obstacles: Modelling and Mapping

Sanchez-Cuevas

Martín

Heredia

et al. 2019

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

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This paper aims to model the aerodynamic effects in the flight of aerial robots close to obstacles in the oil and gas industries. These models are presented in the form of an aerodynamic effects map which represents the changes in the thrust when an aerial vehicle flies very close to different obstacles. Although there are works related to the fly close to different obstacles in the literature, some of the effects needed to develop the aerodynamic map have not been previously studied and tested experimentally in a test stand. The paper also considers the case where the rotor is affected by more than one obstacle.

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Contact-Based Bridge Inspection Multirotors: Design, Modeling, and Control Considering the Ceiling Effect

Cited by 66 publications

References 21 publications

Hand-worn Haptic Interface for Drone Teleoperation

Hand-worn Haptic Interface for Drone Teleoperation

Fully-Actuated Aerial Manipulator for Infrastructure Contact Inspection: Design, Modeling, Localization, and Control

Aerodynamic Effects in Multirotors Flying Close to Obstacles: Modelling and Mapping

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