Paper ID: 2407.03003

Development of a semi-autonomous framework for NDT inspection with a tilting aerial platform

Salvatore Marcellini, Simone D'Angelo, Alessandro De Crescenzo, Michele Marolla, Vincenzo Lippiello, Bruno Siciliano

This letter investigates the problem of controlling an aerial manipulator, composed of an omnidirectional tilting drone equipped with a five-degrees-of-freedom robotic arm. The robot has to interact with the environment to inspect structures and perform non-destructive measurements. A parallel force-impedance control technique is developed to establish contact with the designed surface with a desired force profile. During the interaction, a pushing phase is required to create a vacuum between the surface and the echometer sensor mounted at the end-effector, to measure the thickness of the interaction surface. Repetitive measures are performed to show the repeatability of the algorithm.

Submitted: Jul 3, 2024