Aerial robots for robust contact inspection an manipulation

Abstract

Performing any type of manual work at height usually involves important risks for the personnel. Besides, these operations are much more costly and timely due to the specialized workers and devices that have to be used, like scaffolds, cranes, or rope access. Additionally, the number of industrial robotic solutions to solve these problems is increasing, but significant drawbacks, like the accessibility to manually deploy the robot at the high location, are still present. Another way of solving most of the working at height problems is the aerial robotic manipulation, being a topic that has been growing strongly in the past few years in the robotic community. Typical tasks for aerial robots are pick-and-place operations. However, aerial manipulators merge the versatility of multirotors with the manipulation capabilities of robotic arms. This dissertation describes, analyzes, and validates two aerial robots designed to perform complex manipulation (first robot) and robust contact inspection operations (second robot). Each one is focused on solving different problems, being the objective of the second one to get closer to a final industrial product. Moreover, as the first one was designed before, it contributed to increasing the knowledge of aerial robotics in order to create a second robot with a high technology readiness level (TRL). The first aerial manipulator presented in this dissertation was a novelty in the world because it was integrating a 6 DoF robotic arm under a multirotor aircraft. The problem of the coupling effects between the aerial vehicle and the manipulator was studied and validated through several experiments. Furthermore, the work with this first robot was awarded the first prize of the Spanish National Congress on R&D in Defense and Security DESEi+d. The second aerial manipulator of the thesis is a novel aerial robotic manipulator that performs physical contact inspection with unique capabilities. It is composed of a robotic vehicle, a six degree-of-freedom (DoF) robotic device, and a robotic end-effector equipped with wheels and inspection sensors. This robot has been validated in refineries in Germany and Spain, a bridge, and a cement plant. Also, the robot has been awarded the EU Innovation Radar Prize 2017. The conclusions, the lessons learned, and the future work to be performed are presented by the end of the dissertation.