Ductam quadrotor enhances push and pull force for stable flight
DuctAM: A Duct-Assisted Quadrotor-Based Aerial Manipulator Enabling High-Force Push-and-Pull Interactions
Robotics
Summary
Pushing and pulling objects with flying robots is tricky because the robot has to stay steady while applying force. The authors created a drone called DuctAM that uses special fans to push and pull strongly sideways without tipping over. They tested it on tasks like pushing carts and opening drawers, showing it works better than regular drones. This makes flying robots more useful for physical jobs in the real world.
What this means in practice
- •For drone operators: Perform push-and-pull tasks like opening doors or moving carts with drones that maintain stable flight during horizontal interactions.
- •For industrial automation teams: Use drones capable of applying steady horizontal force for manipulating objects in factory or warehouse environments.
Authors
Yi Wang, Rui Jin, Xinhang Xu, Haotian Jin, Ruiyang Liu, Yizhuo Yang, Lihua Xie
Abstract
Uncrewed Aerial Manipulators (UAMs) extend the capabilities of Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from perception to physical interaction. Among various aerial interactions, push-and-pull operations are fundamental manipulation primitives that require sustained horizontal forces while maintaining stable flight. In this paper, we propose DuctAM, a compact aerial manipulation platform that enhances horizontal force capability for push-and-pull interactions using two ducted fans integrated along the quadrotor interaction axis. An attitude-force decoupled control scheme enables controllable horizontal forces without requiring large attitude changes. Extensive real-world experiments are conducted to validate the DuctAM. Figure-eight trajectory tracking experiments demonstrate stable flight and accurate motion control in both quad and duct modes. Force-measurement experiments quantify the decoupled longitudinal force capability of DuctAM. Finally, representative push-and-pull interaction tasks, including cart pushing, door closing, and drawer opening, verify the practical effectiveness of DuctAM. The results show that DuctAM achieves significantly improved horizontal interaction force capability while maintaining stable flight compared with conventional UAVs.