From Observing To Working: PX4-Powered Aerial Manipulators

Recently, drones have evolved from passive observers into active workers, enabling them to carry out physical work in the sky. This lightning talk shares recent advances in Aerial Manipulators (AM), where flying robots physically interact with their surroundings to perform tasks such as inspecting and maintaining offshore wind turbines.

We showcase how PX4 is accelerating the move from lab research to real-world deployment with the journey of a field test of our open AM framework, Sarax (github/sarax), physically interacting with a wind turbine by the North Sea (youtu.be/Er0f0A97aG8). Alongside it, we highlight two research threads (with references to our open-source HW/SW and PRs). First, a PX4/Pixhawk compliant open standard-interface for active, high-power payloads (e.g. manipulator with a steel brush for surface maintenance) to enable modular AM. Second, developing PX4-powered omnidirectional and actively tilting-rotor aerial robots that enable dexterous physical tasks in windy environments.

We close with next steps and open issues for PX4-powered aerial manipulators and an open invitation for the community to join forces and shape this future together.