Aerial manipulation for remote robotic machinery diagnostics

摘要

The ability to autonomously inspect industrial facilities and infrastructure using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) is significantly increasing due to the advancement of robotics in the field of aerial manipulation. Traditional remote inspections and monitoring are capital intensive and require ample accessibility to infrastructure. UAV inspections look to increase inspection capabilities that were traditionally limited to visual qualitative assessment such as thermal imaging or 3D scanning. A UAV sensor and algorithm package is being developed to include thermal imaging, vibration contact inspections, and lubricant sampling to advance the variety of inspections. Navigation for precise positioning is achieved through visual servoing based on ArUco markers and a control scheme positions the UAV for accurate payload deployment. A radiometric thermal camera captures precise temperature measurements with geo-tagging integration, vibration data is obtained through contact inspection with an accelerometer, and lubricant samples are extracted with a versatile manipulator that removes and replaces a sump cavity cap. The system is described with experimental results.