Extended Data Fig. 5: Aerial docking in motion.
From: Proximal cooperative aerial manipulation with vertically stacked drones
a. The manipulator MAV docked with the toolbox MAV, which moves at a speed of 0.16 m/s. The manipulator MAV successfully retrieved a gripper tool from the toolbox. b. The reference (gray dotted curve) and the actual value (blue curve) of the position of the bottom of the robotic arm of the manipulator MAV before docking. c. The reference (gray dotted curve) and the actual value (green curve) of the position of the toolbox MAV before docking. The transition of the toolbox MAV from a hovering state to a moving state transforms the control problem from setpoint control to tracking control. The proposed control method demonstrates the capability to handle time-varying references. To obtain the time-varying position and velocity of the toolbox MAV, this experiment relies on a high-accuracy indoor positioning system rather than the onboard vision system. All other elements, such as disturbance estimation, remain consistent with the hovering case.
