Consensus Algorithms for Bidirectional Teleoperation of Aerial Manipulator Robots in an Environment with Obstacles

This paper presents a consensus algorithm for formation of aerial manipulators in congested environments. The formation of aerial manipulators is made up of virtual leaders and follower robots, the distribution of the follower robots is determined by a Laplacian matrix, which is built from the reference positions of the follower robots within the convex hull composed of virtual leaders. The references of the of virtual leaders are given by the force of the operator, which is modeled by mechanical impedance and is entered through the haptic device. Obstacle avoidance is based on a repulsion zone, this zone generates a repulsion force, which is fed back to the haptic device so that the operator can feel the force and evade the obstacles. For the validation of the algorithm, simulation tests are carried out for formation of aerial manipulators, teleoperation and force feedback is implemented by means of a haptic device for the generation of references. Finally, the performance of the control algorithms is analyzed and the stability tests are presented.