@conference {2015f-YueMahSecBueFra, title = {Design, Identification and Experimental Testing of a Light-Weight Flexible-joint Arm for Aerial Physical Interaction}, booktitle = {2015 IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation}, year = {2015}, month = {05/2015}, pages = {870-876}, address = {Seattle, WA}, abstract = {In this paper we introduce the design of a light- weight novel flexible-joint arm for light-weight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which can be used both for safe physical interaction with the environment and it represents also a preliminary step in the direction of performing quick motions for tasks such as hammering or throwing. The actuator consists of an active pulley driven by a rotational servo motor, a passive pulley which is attached to a rigid link, and the elastic connections (springs) between these two pulleys. We identify the physical parameters of the system, and use an optimal control strategy to maximize its velocity by taking advantage of elastic components. The prototype can be extended to a light-weight variable stiffness actuator. The flexible-joint arm is applied on a quadrotor, to be used in aerial physical interaction tasks, which implies that the elastic components can also be used for stable interaction absorbing the interactive disturbances which might damage the flying system and its hardware. The design is validated through several experiments, and future developments are discussed in the paper.}, keywords = {Aerial Physical Interaction, Aerial Robotics}, attachments = {https://homepages.laas.fr/afranchi/robotics/sites/default/files/2015f-YueMahSecBueFra-preprint_0.pdf , https://homepages.laas.fr/afranchi/robotics/sites/default/files/2015f-YueMahSecBueFra.mp4}, author = {Burak Y{\"u}ksel and Saber Mahboubi and Cristian Secchi and Heinrich H. B{\"u}lthoff and Antonio Franchi} } @conference {2014d-YueSecBueFra, title = {Reshaping the Physical Properties of a Quadrotor through IDA-PBC and its Application to Aerial Physical Interaction}, booktitle = {2014 IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation}, year = {2014}, month = {05/2014}, pages = {6258-6265}, address = {Hong Kong, China}, abstract = {In this paper we propose a controller, based on an extension of Interconnection and Damping Assignment Passivity Based Control (IDA-PBC) framework, for shaping the whole physical characteristics of a quadrotor and for obtaining a desired interactive behavior between the robot and the environment. In the control design, we shape the total energy (kinetic and potential) of the undamped original system by first excluding external effects. In this way we can assign a new dynamics to the system. Then we apply damping injection to the new system for achieving a desired damped behavior. Then we show how to connect a high-level control input to such system by taking advantage of the new desired physics. We support the theory with extensive simulations by changing the overall behavior of the UAV for different desired dynamics, and show the advantage of this method for sliding on a surface tasks, such as ceiling painting, cleaning or surface inspection.}, keywords = {Aerial Physical Interaction, Aerial Robotics}, attachments = {https://homepages.laas.fr/afranchi/robotics/sites/default/files/2014d-YueSecBueFra-preprint.pdf , https://homepages.laas.fr/afranchi/robotics/sites/default/files/2014d-YueSecBueFra.mp4}, author = {Burak Y{\"u}ksel and Cristian Secchi and Heinrich H. B{\"u}lthoff and Antonio Franchi} }