An aerial manipulator is the combined system of a robot arm attached to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The aerial vehicle increases the size of the robot arm’s workspace in three dimensions, allowing the robot arm to execute manipulation tasks where it could not before. However, it is challenging to effectively control the position of the end-effector of a robot arm attached to a UAV due to the kinematic and dynamic coupling of the two systems.

The focus of this work is to develop an effective control algorithm to enable a aerial manipulator comprising an 2-DOF robot arm and a UAV to follow complex trajectories in 3D space as well as maneuver the UAV in coordination with the arm to place the end-effector in position and orientation suitable for tasks not possible today. To accomplish this task, a mathematical model of the coupled kinematics and dynamics of the UAV and robot arm are formulated. In addition, such model is used for the control of the aerial manipulator. The chosen control solution of an adaptive sliding mode controller for the robot arm is shown to be effective in simulation tests. With the proposed control architecture, the robot arm is able to track any 3D curve projected into its planar workspace while the UAV performs the needed movements to map the robot arm 2D trajectories into the desired 3D curves.