Modeling and control for cooperative transport of a slung fluid container using quadrotors

Abstract In this paper, dynamic modeling and control problem for transfer of a sloshing liquid container suspended through rigid massless links from a team of quadrotors are investigated. By the proposed solution, pose of the slung container and fluid sloshing modes are stabilized appropriately. Dynamics of the container-liquid-quadrotors system is modeled by Euler-Lagrange method. Fluid slosh dynamics is included using multi-mass-spring model. According to derived model, a proper control law is designed for a system with three or more quadrotors. Implementing the proposed control law, quadrotors can control pose of the container, directions of the links and liquid sloshing modes simultaneously. Stability of closed loop system of tracking errors and sloshing modes are demonstrated using a theory of singularly perturbed systems and Lyapunov stability theorem. Also, the capability of the proposed feedback control laws in solving a formerly organized transport problem of a liquid filled container has been demonstrated in simulations. Moreover, priority of the proposed control scheme to an existing slung load controller in the literature is demonstrated.