Optimal Propeller Orientations for a Fully-actuated UAV with an Off-center Payload

Ahmed Ali, Fiorella Romano, Barbara Bazzana, Chiara Gabellieri, Fabio Ruggiero, Antonio Franchi

Keywords: Aerial vehicle, shifted CoM, robotics, aerial inspection, contact-based interaction, optimal design, fully-actuated MAV

Abstract: Physical inspection tasks often require a sensor to be mounted on an end-effector, causing the vehicle's center of mass to shift away from its geometric center. In this extended abstract, we investigate the effect of such an off-center payload on the design of a fixedly tilted fully-actuated octarotor. In particular, results show how the CoM shift changes the optimal rotor orientations. The proposed analysis also shows that, irrespective of the shift, the optimal direction of each propeller lies on the plane perpendicular to the line between that propeller center and the geometric center of the robot chassis.

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Submission Number: 12