Aerial assistive payload transportation using quadrotor UAVs with nonsingular fast terminal SMC for human physical interaction

This paper presents a novel approach to utilizing underactuated quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as assistive devices in cooperative payload transportation task through human guidance and physical interaction. The proposed system consists of two underactuated UAVs rigidly connected to the transported payload. This task involves the collaboration between human and UAVs to transport and manipulate a payload. The goal is to reduce the workload of the human and enable seamless interaction between the human operator and the aerial vehicle. An Admittance-Nonsingular Fast Terminal Sliding Mode Control (NFTSMC) is employed to control and asymptotically stabilize the system while performing the task, where forces are applied to the payload by the human operator dictate the aerial vehicle's motion. The stability of the proposed controller is confirmed using Lyapunov analysis. Extensive simulation studies were conducted using MATLAB, Robot Operating System (ROS), and Gazebo to validate robustness and effectiveness of the proposed controller in assisting with payload transportation tasks. Results demonstrate feasibility and potential benefits utilizing quadrotor UAVs as assistive devices for payload transportation through intuitive human-guided control. • Novel assistive cooperative design for payload transportation system with human physical interaction. • Admittance controller for aerial vehicle-human physical interaction. • Chattering minimization. • Accurate tracking performance. • Asymptotic stability.