Optimal trajectory generation for time-to-contact based aerial robotic perching

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Control Theory
• Bio-inspired Engineering

Background:

• Biological organisms use time-to-contact (TTC) for motion control.
• Robotic applications of TTC often use simplified constant or decreasing strategies.
• Existing TTC strategies limit robotic motion control capabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop advanced two-stage TTC strategies for aerial robotic perching.
• To enable non-zero contact velocities crucial for robust perching.
• To enhance the applicability of TTC in robotic motion control.

Main Methods:

• Proposed two-stage TTC based strategies for generating reference trajectories.
• Simulations to verify strategy performance against constraints and time.
• Experimental validation using a palm-size quadcopter for trajectory tracking and perching.

Main Results:

• The proposed strategies successfully generated reference trajectories for non-zero contact velocities.
• Simulations demonstrated shorter perching times and improved constraint satisfaction.
• Experimental results confirmed the feasibility of aerial robotic perching using the developed strategies.

Conclusions:

• Two-stage TTC strategies offer superior performance for aerial robotic perching compared to existing methods.
• The research enables robust perching with non-zero contact velocities.
• Findings can inspire new TTC-based planning and control for flying robots.