This article deals with aerial manipulators consisting of unmanned helicopters equipped with robotic multi-link arms. This setup has strong potentialities for structure assembly and manipulation tasks, which makes it a valuable resource in outdoor industrial environments. The article presents an elaborate model of the entire system as well as methods for controlling the aerial platform taking into account the motion of the arm. The article presents the design and implementation of a Variable Parameter Integral Backstepping controller which clearly outperforms the results obtained with the standard helicopter controller. Realistic characterization of system sensors has been also accounted for. Simulations experiments confirm the validity of the proposed approach, and the results are also validated with a high-fidelity Modelica simulation model.
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