U-Joint CAAMS: Experimental Evaluation of a Universal-Joint Continuum Manipulator for Aerial Manipulation

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2607.03321v1
• Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2026 13:38:40 GMT
• Title: U-Joint CAAMS: Experimental Evaluation of a Universal-Joint Continuum Manipulator for Aerial Manipulation
• Abstract summary: The proposed design uses a tubular backbone with spring-reinforced universal joints and an integrated conduit for internal routing and fluid delivery.<n>Under peak downwash, the proposed design reduces mean error by 2.5-4x in yaw, 2-45x in y-axis, and up to 5x in roll compared to the NiTi-backbone design.
• Score: 36.94429692322632
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Continuum manipulators mounted on multi-rotor UAVs enable compliant aerial manipulation, but payloads and propeller downwash amplify out-of-plane bending and twisting that degrade end-effector pose accuracy. To address this problem, we present a universal-joint-based continuum manipulator designed to improve resistance to out-of-plane deformation during aerial manipulation. The proposed design uses a tubular backbone with spring-reinforced universal joints and an integrated conduit for internal routing and fluid delivery. We evaluate the design in still air and under peak propeller downwash across varying payloads, and benchmark it against a prior Nitinol-backbone CM. Bench tests show improved resistance to out-of-plane deformation across all conditions. Under peak downwash, the proposed design reduces mean error by 2.5-4x in yaw, 2-45x in y-axis, and up to 5x in roll compared to the NiTi-backbone design. We further analyze hover stability through in-flight coupled-disturbance tests over varying payloads and actuation speeds, and demonstrate the system in water sampling, spot spraying, and object transport.

Related papers

• DuctAM: A Duct-Assisted Quadrotor-Based Aerial Manipulator Enabling High-Force Push-and-Pull Interactions [23.890768969262556]
  Push-and-pull operations require sustained horizontal forces while maintaining stable flight.<n>DuctAM is a compact aerial manipulation platform that enhances horizontal force capability for push-and-pull interactions.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-09-14T16:54:11Z)
• Low-Altitude Fluid Antenna Network with Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning [49.09908852315575]
  We study the fast and high-performance reconfiguration for low-altitude FA networks with multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL)<n>Our case study shows that joint FA positions and beamforming optimization can enhance the system sum-rate by 118.5%, compared to the fixed position baseline.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-08-28T04:27:44Z)
• An Experimental Study of Downwash Effects on a Continuum Manipulator Integrated with a Multirotor UAV [0.0]
  Continuum arm aerial manipulation systems leverage soft-manipulator compliance and dexterity for tasks in confined or hazardous environments.<n> propeller downwash can degrade performance, particularly near walls and the ground.<n>This letter experimentally studies downwash-induced kinematic deviations of a tendon-driven continuum manipulator integrated with a multirotor platform.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-08-19T03:54:02Z)
• Effector-Centric NMPC of Tiltable-Multirotors for Offset-Free Omnidirectional Aerial Manipulation [9.325443556436436]
  This work presents a design analysis and a wrench-based control framework for tiltable-multirotors in aerial manipulation.<n>A four-rotor tiltable configuration provides a balance between interference-free propeller sizing and hovering efficiency.<n>We develop an effector-centric nonlinear model predictive control framework that integrates design choices, handling, and disturbance compensation.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-08-18T14:18:48Z)
• FLOAT Drone for Physical Interaction: Lateral Airflow Reduction, Wrench Modeling, and Adaptive Control [4.5429661185092085]
  This article presents FLOAT Drone, a fully actuated UAV with servo-driven control surfaces for close-proximity physical interaction.<n>A force-matched computational fluid dynamics (CFD) comparison with a tilted-rotor alternative quantifies the reduction in target-facing lateral airflow.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-07-05T12:14:43Z)
• A Multimodal Tiltwing Framework for Bioinspired Aerial Robots [0.7734726150561088]
  Tailless flapping-wing micro-aerial vehicles (FWMAVs) mimic the impressive flight performance of hummingbirds.<n>Existing designs are still limited and purpose-built with a restricted flight envelope and poor endurance.<n>We propose an adaptable tiltwing framework enabling bioinspired aerial robots to switch between hovering flight, high-speed directional flight, and energy-efficient flight.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-06-20T13:59:36Z)
• HoLoArm: Deformable Arms for Collision-Tolerant Quadrotor Flight [46.42648821424623]
  We present HoLoArm, a quadrotor with compliant arms inspired by the nodus structure of dragonfly wings.<n>Results demonstrate that HoLoArm can passively deform in any direction, including axial one, and recover within 0.3-0.6 s depending on the direction and level of the impact.<n>Drone can survive collisions at speeds up to 7.6 m/s and carry a 540 g payload while maintaining stable flight.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-05-25T12:37:18Z)
• Aero-World: Action-Conditioned Aerial Video Generation from Inertial Controls [57.166020875486474]
  We propose textbfAero-World, a method for converting a pretrained image-to-video diffusion model into a controllable aerial video generator.<n>A frozen latent-space Physics Probe, trained independently on real video--IMU pairs, provides differentiable inertial-consistency supervision during LoRA finetuning.<n>On AeroBench, Aero-World improves mean AAS from 57.7 to 63.6 over action-only finetuning and gives a stronger quality-control trade-off than AirScape.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-05-19T12:02:17Z)
• Computational Design of a Low-Visibility UAV Using a Human-Aligned Perceptual Metric [9.122954088908196]
  Phantom Twist is a type of single-propeller UAV designed to achieve low visibility through high-speed spinning and the exploitation of motion blur.<n>We develop a two-stage automated design pipeline that optimize the placement of functional components.<n>We validate this approach through fabrication and flight testing of multiple prototypes.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-05-11T22:32:18Z)
• Design of an In-Pipe Robot with Contact-Angle-Guided Kinematic Decoupling for Crosstalk-Suppressed Locomotion [20.379309593600414]
  In-pipe inspection robots must traverse confined pipeline networks with elbows and three-dimensional fittings.<n>In compact V-shaped platforms, these functions often rely on shared contacts or indirect actuation.<n>This paper presents a V-shaped in-pipe robot with a joint-axis-and-wheel-separation layout that provides two physically independent actuation channels.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-03-28T11:40:36Z)
• Tilt-X: Enabling Compliant Aerial Manipulation through a Tiltable-Extensible Continuum Manipulator [35.18016233072556]
  Continuum arm aerial manipulation systems offer lightweight, dexterous, and compliant interaction opportunities.<n>Existing designs allow manipulation only below the UAV which restricts their deployability in multiple directions and through clutter.<n>We present Tilt-X, a continuum arm aerial manipulator that integrates a tilting mechanism, a telescopic stage, and a cable-driven continuum section.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-02-27T01:05:58Z)
• Joint Orientation and Weight Optimization for Robust Watertight Surface Reconstruction via Dirichlet-Regularized Winding Fields [77.36628820738271]
  Dirichlet Winding Reconstruction (DiWR) is a robust method for reconstructing watertight surfaces from unoriented point clouds.<n>Our method uses the generalized winding number (GWN) field as the target implicit representation.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-02-14T14:27:07Z)
• AMBER: A tether-deployable gripping crawler with compliant microspines for canopy manipulation [0.0]
  The system combines compliant microspine-based tracks, a dual-track rotary gripper, and an elastic tail.<n> Experiments demonstrate reliable gripping up to 90$circ$ body roll and inclination, while effective climbing on branches inclined up to 67.5$circ$.<n>The crawler provides a robust, low-power platform for environmental sampling and in-canopy sensing.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-12-08T16:17:56Z)
• Angle Robustness Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Navigation in GNSS-Denied Scenarios [66.05091704671503]
  We present a novel angle navigation paradigm to deal with flight deviation in point-to-point navigation tasks. We also propose a model that includes the Adaptive Feature Enhance Module, Cross-knowledge Attention-guided Module and Robust Task-oriented Head Module.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-02-04T08:41:20Z)
• Transition control of a tail-sitter UAV using recurrent neural networks [80.91076033926224]
  The control strategy is based on attitude and velocity stabilization. The RNN is used for the estimation of high nonlinear aerodynamic terms. Results show convergence of linear velocities and the pitch angle during the transition maneuver.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-06-29T21:33:30Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.