Aerial manipulator with a compliant arm for bridge inspection

摘要

This paper presents the design, development and testing of a 4-DoF aerial manipulator for bridge inspection, where the arm is placed at the upper part of the multirotor body. The manipulator joints are equipped with a compliant mechanism that allows the contact with the environment reducing the influence over the platform stability. The transmission mechanism consists of two pairs of springs and a potentiometer for measuring the angular deflection between the servo and the joint angular position, which allows the estimation of the contact forces. Experimental tests have been done with the aerial manipulator placing the end effector at different points in the lower part of a bridge girder, which is needed by bridge inspectors to measure girder's deflections over time.