Payload trajectory tracking control for aerial transportation systems with cable length online optimization

2025-10-27

AI Summary

This paper addresses the challenges of low trajectory tracking accuracy and strong nonlinear coupling in variable-length cable aerial transport systems. To this end, an online cable-length cooperative control strategy is proposed, integrating backstepping design with Lyapunov stability theory. A novel cable-length generator is introduced to optimize cable length in real time within the closed loop, dynamically coupled with multi-rotor motion without requiring predefined reference trajectories. State constraints and growth-rate limitations are incorporated to ensure asymptotic stability of the overall system. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly improves tracking accuracy, transient response speed, and disturbance rejection capability under complex trajectories. Moreover, it enhances the system’s autonomy and adaptability under unknown operating conditions.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Multi-Robot Systems
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Multiagent Systems: Multiagent Planning

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Applied ML and AI for Web-based mobile applications
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Incentives in network design for Web infrastructures and ecosystems

Abstract

Cable-suspended aerial transportation systems are employed extensively across various industries. The capability to flexibly adjust the relative position between the multirotor and the payload has spurred growing interest in the system equipped with variable-length cable, promising broader application potential. Compared to systems with fixed-length cables, introducing the variable-length cable adds a new degree of freedom. However, it also results in increased nonlinearity and more complex dynamic coupling among the multirotor, the cable and the payload, posing significant challenges in control design. This paper introduces a backstepping control strategy tailored for aerial transportation systems with variable-length cable, designed to precisely track the payload trajectory while dynamically adjusting cable length. Then, a cable length generator has been developed that achieves online optimization of the cable length while satisfying state constraints, thus balancing the multirotor's motion and cable length changes without the need for manual trajectory planning. The asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system is guaranteed through Lyapunov techniques and the growth restriction condition. Finally, simulation results confirm the efficacy of the proposed method in managing trajectory tracking and cable length adjustments effectively.

Problem

• Tracking payload trajectory with variable-length cable systems
• Optimizing cable length online while meeting state constraints
• Managing nonlinear dynamics in aerial transportation control systems

Innovation

• Backstepping control for variable-length cable systems
• Online cable length optimization with state constraints
• Lyapunov-based asymptotic stability guarantee