Cyber-Physical Communication for Cooperative Human-Robot Mobility

Human-robot teams engaged in transportation and data collection will often share a common physical workspace. This project will investigate fundamental challenges in human-cyberphysical-systems (h-CPS) for cooperative aerial payload transport.  First, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) cooperatively lift and carry a payload through a cluttered environment under uncertain winds. The multi-UAV system (MUS) functions autonomously to allow human companions to focus attention on their environment while interacting with the MUS. We propose a novel interface where an operator pushes on the slung payload to guide the team and coordinates the mission through a networked tablet. A novel cooperative control strategy safely guides the MUS while physics-based algorithms distinguish human inputs from environmental disturbances. Flight tests will demonstrate and validate the h-CPS. This project offers three research advances: MUS scalability and collision avoidance guarantees through continuum deformation cooperative control, safe MUS compensation for vehicle anomalies, and cognitively-tractable user interfaces. Particularly novel to this work is the h-CPS interface in which an operator pushes on the payload to guide the MUS team.