Platforms with Multi-directional Total Thrust

Abstract

The chapter provides an overview of the basic modeling and the intrinsic properties of aerial platforms with multi-directional total thrust ability. When also fully-actuated, such platforms can modify the total wrench in body frame in any direction, thus allowing the control of position and orientation independently. Therefore, they are best suited for dexterous tasks, physical interaction, and for carrying aerial manipulators, because they do not suffer from the underactuation of standard collinear multirotors. The chapter includes a rigorous classification, a discussion on the possible input coupling, and on the capabilities and pitfalls of inverse-dynamics control approach for such platforms.