Maneuvering Control of Hexrotor UAV Equipped With a Cable-Driven Gripper

This study proposes a control method for the maneuvering control of an aircraft system equipped with a cable-driven gripper. The UAV chosen for the study is a hex-rotor due to its durability and redundancy. The reason for opting for the cable-driven robotic arm is because of its extended range as compared to a fixed robotic arm. The aircraft system also contains an Ultra HD camera which helps to locate and identify the target object. Since the UAV grabs the object, the extra weight introduces some instability in the system. To help stabilize the dynamic behavior of the gripper and reduce external wind disturbance, we need an effective and robust control mechanism. To tackle these issues, this paper designs a control method based on the Model Reference Adaptive Control with an integrator (MRACI) with reference dynamics like an observer. On one hand, first, verify the performance of the proposed controller using computer-based simulations. On the other hand, it also applies the designed method to hardware-based results. The simulations and experimental results show that the designed controller works as intended and the errors are within an acceptable range.