Aerial manipulation system for automated installation seismic activity sensors

Abstract

The development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the improvement of their production technologies and control methods are constantly expanding the range of tasks in which the use of UAVs is relevant and economically feasible. One area in which the use of UAVs can provide significant benefits is the transportation of seismic activity sensors in hard-to-reach or dangerous areas. The work proposes an approach to the automated transportation, installation and collection of seismic activity sensors, which requires precise landing of the UAV. Positioning of the UAV during landing is carried out using technical vision and a fractal ArUco marker. The work describes the development of an original design for a gripper device and a transport fastening for the sensor. The principles of constructing the hardware of the gripper control system and its integration with the design and equipment of the UAV are considered, and the algorithms for the functioning of the gripper control module are described. Experiments were carried out that confirmed the effectiveness and performance of the proposed solutions. The collection of seismic activity sensors from the surface was successful in 80% of cases with deviations from the target landing point of up to 115 mm in the horizontal plane. The advantage of the developed gripper device is its relatively low weight - 1020 g, with the mass of the transported cargo being equal to 2760 g. The proposed kinematic scheme and its implementation using a screw-nut transmission eliminates the energy costs for fixing the transported cargo in flight. The low mass of the gripper and low requirements for the accuracy of positioning of the UAV at the landing point distinguishes the developed solutions from other existing ones and proves their promise in performing the tasks of manipulating and transporting ground objects using unmanned aerial systems.