Assisted Flight Control for Aerial Contact UAV s in Industrial Environments.

Abstract

This paper describes the state machine of an autonomous contact UAV for assisted inspection tasks. The UAV is able to control its position using on-board sensors, while the human operator sends the high-level directives. The internal controller of the robot is aware of the state machine status, granting that the control signals that reach the autopilot are smooth, when transitioning between the different control modes. The article summarizes the control modes associated to state machine's states, describes the rules for the smooth transitions, and shows experimental results. Indoor experiments are evaluated with a VICON system, and outdoors experiments show a qualitative representation of those smooth shifts between the states.