Wrench-feasible workspace analysis considering aerodynamics of aerial robotic camera under high speed

Abstract

Recently, there have been demand for aerial robotic cameras that offer a large working space, long broadcasting times, and excellent dynamic stability to broadcast live images of various sporting events. If an aerial robotic camera was to broadcast sporting events at a very high speed, the workspace was affected dominantly by external forces induced by aerodynamics. In this paper the effect of air drag forces on the aerial robotic camera was investigated at various high speeds, operating directions, and camera poses. First, the kinematics of the aerial robotic camera were derived in static equilibrium with inverse position kinematics and a Jacobian matrix. Then, the aerodynamics of the proposed aerial robotic camera was analyzed using ANSYS CFX, a commercial computational fluid dynamics software. The air drag force affected the dynamics of the aerial robotic camera significantly under various conditions. And then, workspace analysis was performed to determine the available working range. The workspace became smaller when force and rotational moments increased.