Design, Modeling And Control Of Omni-Directional Aerial Robot

We propose a novel multi-rotor flying platform, ODAR (omni-directional aerial robot), which is fully-actuated (i.e., can assume arbitrary motion in SE(3) or generate arbitrary control wrench in se(3)) by six opportunistically distributed rotors, each driven by reversible ESC (electronic speed controller) for bi-directional thrust generation. Due to this omni-directional wrench generation, the ODAR system can realize such powerful behaviors impossible with conventional multi-rotor flying platforms as: 360 degrees photo/video shooting while holding its position for VR scene generation; or resisting side-way gust while keeping its attitude and exerting downward pushing force larger than its own weight for aerial manipulation applications. This paper presents optimal mechanical design, modeling and control, hardware and software implementation, and experimental verification of the ability of the ODAR system to attain those behaviors impossible with the conventional drones as stated above.