Marine waves significantly disturb the unmanned surface vehicle (USV) motion. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can hardly land on a USV that undergoes irregular motion. An oversized landing platform is usually necessary to guarantee the landing safety, which limits the number of UAVs that can be carried. We propose a landing system assisted by tether and robot manipulation. The system can land multiple UAVs without increasing the USV's size. An MPC controller stabilizes the end-effector and tracks the UAVs, and an adaptive estimator addresses the disturbance caused by the base motion. The working strategy of the system is designed to plan the motion of each device. We have validated the manipulator controller through simulations and well-controlled indoor experiments. During the field tests, the proposed system caught and placed the UAVs when the disturbed USV roll range was approximately 12 degrees.

翻译：海浪显著干扰无人艇（USV）的运动。无人机（UAV）难以在发生不规则运动的无人艇上降落。通常需要超大型起降平台来保证降落安全，但这限制了无人艇可搭载的无人机数量。我们提出了一种由绳索和机械臂操控辅助的降落系统。该系统无需增加无人艇尺寸即可实现多架无人机降落。采用MPC控制器稳定末端执行器并跟踪无人机轨迹，同时通过自适应估计器补偿无人艇基座运动引起的扰动。系统的工作策略被设计用于规划各设备的运动。我们通过仿真和良好控制的室内实验验证了机械臂控制器。在外场试验中，当受扰无人艇横摇幅度约12度时，所提系统成功捕获并放置了无人机。