Aerial Physical Human Robot Interaction for Payload Transportation

Recent human-robot interaction paradigms on aerial robots unfold many potential applications, and efforts are further being made to explore this field. Physical interaction with aerial robots can provide an intuitive way of delivering high-level commands and allowing humans to perform collaborative tasks. The presented work demonstrates the feasibility of deploying the aerial robot to physically work with the human operator to transport the payload collaboratively in outdoor settings. A system comprised of a rigid object lifted by a human and a quadcopter from its end is considered. Custom build sensor systems, namely Human Handle Device and Cable Attitude Device, have been designed to estimate human commands and state feedback reliably. A control strategy for the quadcopter is designed to interact naturally with the operator for safer and smooth collaborative payload transportation. Successful outdoor experiments with five novice subjects are presented that demonstrate the feasibility and potential application of the proposed modality.