In challenging terrains, constructing structures such as antennas and cable-car masts often requires the use of helicopters to transport loads via ropes. The swinging of the load, exacerbated by wind, impairs positioning accuracy, therefore necessitating precise manual placement by ground crews. This increases costs and risk of injuries. Challenging this paradigm, we present Geranos: a specialized multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) designed to enhance aerial transportation and assembly. Geranos demonstrates exceptional prowess in accurately positioning vertical poles, achieving this through an innovative integration of load transport and precision. Its unique ring design mitigates the impact of high pole inertia, while a lightweight two-part grasping mechanism ensures secure load attachment without active force. With four primary propellers countering gravity and four auxiliary ones enhancing lateral precision, Geranos achieves comprehensive position and attitude control around hovering. Our experimental demonstration mimicking antenna/cable-car mast installations showcases Geranos ability in stacking poles (3 kg, 2 m long) with remarkable sub-5 cm placement accuracy, without the need of human manual intervention.
翻译:在复杂地形中,建造天线、缆车桅杆等结构通常需要借助直升机通过绳索运输负载。负载的摆动会因风力加剧而影响定位精度,因此需要地面人员精确手动放置,这增加了成本和受伤风险。针对这一挑战,我们提出Geranos:一种专为增强空中运输与组装能力而设计的专用多旋翼无人飞行器(UAV)。Geranos通过创新的负载运输与精度集成技术,在垂直杆状物体的精确定位方面展现出卓越性能。其独特的环形设计可减轻高惯性杆体的影响,而轻量化的两部分抓取机构无需主动施力即可确保负载稳固连接。通过四个主旋翼抵消重力、四个辅助旋翼增强横向精度,Geranos实现了悬停状态下的全自由度位置与姿态控制。我们的实验演示模拟了天线/缆车桅杆安装场景,展示了Geranos在无需人工干预的情况下以显著低于5厘米的放置精度堆叠杆件(3千克,2米长)的能力。