aiqbench analysis
RAPTOR demonstrates a significant leap in aerial manipulation by combining a soft Fin Ray gripper with a low-latency Fast DDS middleware to achieve 83% grasping efficacy at 1 m/s. This approach overcomes the precision limitations of traditional rigid grippers, enabling robust payload transport in dynamic environments like automated warehouses. The system's ability to support up to four times the payload in high-velocity settings highlights its practical potential for real-world logistics and hard-to-reach operations.
RAPTOR: Rapid Aerial Pickup and Transport of Objects by Robots
arXiv:2203.03018v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Rapid aerial grasping through robots can lead to many applications that utilize fast and dynamic picking and placing of objects. Rigid grippers traditionally used in aerial manipulators require high precision and specific object geometries for successful grasping. We propose RAPTOR, a quadcopter platform combined with a custom Fin Ray gripper to enable more flexible grasping of objects with different geometries, leveraging the properties of soft materials to increase the contact surface between the gripper and the objects. To reduce the communication latency, we present a new lightweight middleware solution based on Fast DDS (Data Distribution Service) as an alternative to ROS (Robot Operating System). We show that RAPTOR achieves an average of 83% grasping efficacy in a real-world setting for four different object geometries while moving at an average velocity of 1 m/s during grasping. In a high-velocity setting, RAPTOR supports up to four times the payload compared to previous works. Our results highlight the potential of aerial drones in automated warehouses and other manipulation applications where speed, swiftness, and robustness are essential while operating in hard-to-reach places.
Abstract:Rapid aerial grasping through robots can lead to many applications that utilize fast and dynamic picking and placing of objects. Rigid grippers traditionally used in aerial manipulators require high precision and specific object geometries for successful grasping. We propose RAPTOR, a quadcopter platform combined with a custom Fin Ray gripper to enable more flexible grasping of objects with different geometries, leveraging the properties of soft materials to increase the contact surface between the gripper and the objects. To reduce the communication latency, we present a new lightweight middleware solution based on Fast DDS (Data Distribution Service) as an alternative to ROS (Robot Operating System). We show that RAPTOR achieves an average of 83% grasping efficacy in a real-world setting for four different object geometries while moving at an average velocity of 1 m/s during grasping. In a high-velocity setting, RAPTOR supports up to four times the payload compared to previous works. Our results highlight the potential of aerial drones in automated warehouses and other manipulation applications where speed, swiftness, and robustness are essential while operating in hard-to-reach places.
7 pages, 10 figures, accepted to IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2022. Video: this https URL Project page: this https URL
Robotics (cs.RO); Systems and Control (eess.SY)
arXiv:2203.03018 [cs.RO]
(or arXiv:2203.03018v3 [cs.RO] for this version)
Full text under the publisher's open licence · 217 words
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