Position estimation of tethered micro unmanned aerial vehicle by observing the slack tether

Kiribayashi, Seiga; Yakushigawa, Kaede; Nagatani, Keiji

doi:10.1109/ssrr.2017.8088157

Cited by 17 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The tether arrival angle at the UAV is measured (Sandino et al, 2015), and/or the tension at the UAV estimated (Al‐Radaideh & Sun, 2017), and incorporated into the state estimation algorithm. Other prior related work has used a non‐taut catenary cable model for position estimation (Galea & Kry, 2017; Kiribayashi et al, 2017). These tethered systems consider only a scenario where the base station is stationary, not undergoing dynamic motion as considered here.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomous hanging tether management and experimentation for an unmanned air‐surface vehicle team

Talke

Birchmore

Bewley

2022

Journal of Field Robotics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The mission of an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) tethered to a small unmanned surface vehicle (USV) is considered. As opposed to the majority of existing tethered UAV work, which assumes a taut tether, this paper addresses the challenge of tether management for a slack, hanging tether in a dynamic ocean environment up to sea state 4 on the Douglas scale. A prototype smart reel system for a UAV–USV team was designed and experimentally validated in controlled and uncontrolled dynamic environments. A reference model for tether control based on static catenary cable theory was extended and shown to be valid through the entire operational envelop. A Kalman filter was developed to fuse slow (4 Hz) differential GPS (dGPS) relative position measurements with fast (100 Hz) inertial measurements, to output a 100 Hz estimate of relative position, relative velocity, and inertial sensor bias. A relative velocity‐based gain‐scheduled proportional‐derivative (PD) controller was developed, and demonstrated robustness to heave, pitch, and roll motion of the USV. Experimental testing with a UAV surrogate showed successful decoupling of heave motion from the UAV altitude in a controlled indoor environment. Taut tether control, in contrast, exhibited 12 times more tether tension at the UAV compared to the controller proposed here. The performance of the tuned controller with feedback from the Kalman filter exhibited minimal deviation from static catenary cable theory during the dynamic experiments. Indoor flight testing showed the developed reference model and controller essentially decoupled the dynamic motion of the USV from that of the UAV; the measured deflections of the UAV altitude and position essentially matched that of untethered flight. Outdoor flights validated the effectiveness of the controller in an unknown dynamic environment, for a larger relative position between the UAV and USV, using the dGPS Kalman filter solution to measure relative position. Initial experimental results look promising for continued on‐water testing of hanging‐tether UAV/USV teams.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomous hanging tether management and experimentation for an unmanned air‐surface vehicle team

Talke

Birchmore

Bewley

2022

Journal of Field Robotics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, fixed tethering systems constrain the UAV operating space. To overcome this issue, the adoption of a heterogeneous team of tethered vehicles has recently been proposed to take advantage of the complementary features and strengths provided by the different types of platforms [9]- [12]. For instance, in the case of missions for visual inspections, an aerial vehicle provides a better perspective, compared to a ground platform, which has a higher payload and allows the transportation of long-autonomy batteries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tether-Based Localization for Cooperative Ground and Aerial Vehicles

Borgese

Guastella

Sutera

et al. 2022

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Considering a multi-robot system composed of a ground vehicle and a multi-copter connected each other with a tether, it is crucial for them to know their relative positions in order to carry out any operating task. Localization is usually accomplished by using GPS in outdoor environments. However, such a system does not work in indoor and more generally in so-called GPS denied environments. We investigated a solution which exploits the catenary configuration assumed by tether and does not require any computationally demanding resource or complex cable tension sensors. Different approaches have been experimentally tested, compared and validated with classical localization systems in both indoor and outdoor environments.

show abstract

“…This work is mainly focused in the control strategy and the advantages that a tether can provide to the stability of an UAV. In [ 16 ], a power-feeding tethered micro UAV is used and a position estimation method based on observing the slack tether is proposed. Some indoor experiments are carried out to prove the feasibility of this method.…”

Section: Introduction and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They tested their localization method on a physical robot (Fotokite Pro). Although it is possible to find real experimental data in [ 16 , 17 ], landing tests in these works are performed over static platforms and in indoor scenarios where the weather conditions do not affect the navigation capabilities.…”

Section: Introduction and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Precise and GNSS-Free Landing System on Moving Platforms for Rotary-Wing UAVs

Alarcón

Garcia

Maza

et al. 2019

Sensors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article presents a precise landing system that allows rotary-wing UAVs to approach and land safely on moving platforms, without using GNSS at any stage of the landing maneuver, and with a centimeter level accuracy and high level of robustness. This system implements a novel concept where the relative position and velocity between the aerial vehicle and the landing platform are calculated from the angles of a cable that physically connects the UAV and the landing platform. The use of a cable also incorporates a number of extra benefits, such as increasing the precision in the control of the UAV altitude. It also facilitates centering the UAV right on top of the expected landing position, and increases the stability of the UAV just after contacting the landing platform. The system was implemented in an unmanned helicopter and many tests were carried out under different conditions for measuring the accuracy and the robustness of the proposed solution. Results show that the developed system allowed landing with centimeter accuracy by using only local sensors and that the helicopter could follow the landing platform in multiple trajectories at different velocities.

show abstract

Position estimation of tethered micro unmanned aerial vehicle by observing the slack tether

Cited by 17 publications

References 10 publications

Autonomous hanging tether management and experimentation for an unmanned air‐surface vehicle team

Autonomous hanging tether management and experimentation for an unmanned air‐surface vehicle team

Tether-Based Localization for Cooperative Ground and Aerial Vehicles

A Precise and GNSS-Free Landing System on Moving Platforms for Rotary-Wing UAVs

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About