Lightweight Multipurpose Three-Arm Aerial Manipulator Systems for UAV Adaptive Leveling after Landing and Overhead Docking

In aerial manipulation, the position and size of a manipulator attached to an aerial robot defines its workspace relative to the robot. However, the working region of a multipurpose robot is determined by its task and is not always predictable prior to deployment. In this paper, the development of a multipurpose manipulator design for a three-armed UAV with a large workspace around its airframe is proposed. The manipulator is designed to be lightweight and slim in order to not disrupt the UAV during in-flight manipulator movements. In the experiments, we demonstrate various advanced and critical tasks required of an aerial robot when deployed in a remote environment, focusing on the landing and docking tasks, which is accomplished using a single manipulator system.