JOURNAL OF GUIDANCE, CONTROL, AND DYNAMICS
Engineering Notes
Cooperative Transportation of a Flexible
Payload Using Two Quadrotors
Ti Chen∗
Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 210016
Nanjing, People’s Republic of China
Jinjun Shan†
York University, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada
and
Hugh H. T. Liu‡
University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M3H 5T6, Canada
https://doi.org/10.2514/1.G005914
Downloaded by Hugh Liu on July 8, 2021 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.G005914
I. Introduction
I N RECENT years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), especially
quadrotors, and their applications have received significant atten-
tion. Applications have included mapping [1], aerial transportation
[2], construction [3], and so on. A popular approach for aerial trans-
portation is to connect the cargo to the quadrotor with a cable. A lot of
work has been done to solve the dynamics, control, and navigation
problem of such a slung load system [4–7]. The key challenge of such
a system is that the cable-suspended payload increases the degrees of
freedom to be controlled; i.e., the payload oscillation has to be
controlled with limited sensors and actuators.
Usually, the payload capacity of a quadrotor is limited. Hence, to
manipulate a heavy payload or ensure the agility of the transportation
system, one possible solution is to use multiple quadrotors
cooperatively. In general, similar to the payload transportation using
a quadrotor, there are mainly two ways to mount the cargo to the
quadrotor body, i.e., the cable-suspended or grasping approach.
Many works on cooperative aerial transportation using these two
approaches have been reported in the literature [8–10]. For the
cooperative transportation of a cable-suspended payload, the swing-
ing payload changes the dynamic behaviors of the quadrotor systems
significantly, and it is quite challenging to build the accurate model
considering that the cables may be flexible or even slack. The differ-
ential flatness property of such a cooperative transportation system of
a cable-suspended payload is discussed in [9] to define dynamically
feasible trajectories. The cables can, in a sense, be considered as the
actuators for the payload movement; i.e., to drive the payload to track
the desired trajectory, one can derive the necessary cable tensions,
based on which the control commands for quadrotors are obtained.
For example, Geng and Langelaan proposed a load-leading control
Received 11 January 2021; revision received 19 May 2021; accepted for
publication 22 May 2021; published online 7 July 2021. Copyright © 2021 by
Ti Chen, Jinjun Shan, and Hugh Liu. Published by the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission. All requests for copying
and permission to reprint should be submitted to CCC at www.copyright.com;
employ the eISSN 1533-3884 to initiate your request. See also AIAA Rights
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*Professor, State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical
Structures, 29 Yudao Street, Jiangsu; chenti@nuaa.edu.cn. Member AIAA.
†
Professor, Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, 4700
Keele Street; jjshan@yorku.ca. Associate Fellow AIAA (Corresponding
Author).
‡ flexible cable in [13] to describe the behavior of such a flexible hose. To
Professor, The Institute for Aerospace Studies, 4925 Dufferin Street,
liu@utias.utoronto.ca. Associate Fellow AIAA.
Article in Advance / 1
method for the cooperative manipulation of a cable-suspended pay-
load using multiple quadrotors to drive the payload to track the
desired trajectory [2]. Masone et al. considered the cooperative trans-
portation system of a cable-suspended payload as a reconfigurable
cable-driven parallel robot and designed a controller based on the
internal motion between payload and quadrotors [11]. Another
method is to realize the transportation of cable-suspended payload
based on the formation flying of a group of quadrotors. For instance,
Qian and Liu designed a hierarchical controller based on a velocity
stabilization control to stabilize the payload and drive the quadrotors
along a given trajectory [12]. Tagliabue et al. presented an admittance
control method under a master–slave architecture for quadrotors
carrying a heavy payload via spherical joints or short cables, which
implies that the quadrotor attitude motions are decoupled from the
payload motion [10]. Furthermore, some researchers have considered
cable flexibility. For example, Goodarzi and Lee built coordinate-free
dynamics equations for the cooperative transportation of a cable-
suspended payload by modeling the cables as a serial connection of
links and designed a controller based on the linearized equations of
motion [13]. Ariyibi and Tekinalp developed a simulation model for
the system of two quadrotors carrying a load using flexible cables and
designed a formation controller to realize the quadrotor control [14].
To avoid the difficulties caused by the cables and enable a direct
control of the payload’s state, some scholars have studied the manipu-
lation of a payload using aerial graspers or manipulators [15–21]. For
instance, Kim et al. equipped the quadrotor with a robotic arm and
studied the transportation of a slender payload using two quadrotors
based on a motion planner and a robust controller [17]. The same
research group has also considered problems such as efficient motion
planning [18] and collision avoidance [19] for such a group of aerial
manipulators. Mellinger et al. modeled multiple quadrotors grasping
a payload as a large multirotor and presented a control method to
drive the system to track a 3D trajectory [20]. Loianno and Kumar
focused on the state estimation, path planning, and coordinated
control of the aerial transportation of a heavy payload using perma-
nent electromagnets to connect the payload to quadrotors’ bodies
[21]. Overall, unlike quadrotors transporting a cable-suspended pay-
load, quadrotors in payload transportation via rigid connectors are
strongly coupled; i.e., the movement of any quadrotor will definitely
affect the behaviors of other quadrotors and payload. To reduce the
complexity of the entire system, this paper focuses on the trans-
portation of a flexible payload connected to two quadrotors using
permanent magnets. Therefore, there is no relative movement
between the quadrotor body and the connection point on the payload.
For such a system, Refs. [20,21] modeled the entire system as a large
multirotor and allocated control commands for all quadrotors based
on the relative position and orientation between quadrotors in the
team. However, in some cases, the payload to be transported may not
be rigid, such as the flexible ring [22] or flexible hose [23]. For a
flexible payload, aerial manipulation probably causes the payload
vibrating [22,24], which will change the relative pose between quad-
rotors. Consequently, the possible payload deformation will introduce
significant challenges in dynamics modeling and controller design. In
[22], Ritz and D’Andrea considered the transportation of a thin and
flexible ring using six quadrotors. Essentially, they modeled the ring
individually by treating the vehicles as some special actuators based on
the assumption that each quadrotor can generate two scalar inputs.
Motivated by active firefighting using hoses to carry water, Kotaru and
Sreenath built the system model using small links to approximate the
continuous hose, analyzed its differential flatness, and designed a state
feedback controller based on linear–quadratic regulator (LQR) [23].
Essentially, they used the idea similar to the dynamic modeling of the
the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are not many works on the
 2 Article in Advance / ENGINEERING NOTES

aerial transportation of a flexible payload. This study attempts to rq2  X 2 ; Y 2 ; Z2 T  X 1 ; Y 1 ; Z1 T  R1 0; l; w
l; tT , where rp
present a solution to the control problem for the aerial transportation is the position vector of point P, X 1 ; Y 1 ; Z1 T is the coordinate of
of a flexible payload, i.e., a flexible beam, based on the dynamic model rq1 in the frame OXYZ, and w
l; t represents the lateral deformation
of the whole system. Numerical and experimental results are presented of the point on the beam under quadrotor 2.
to validate the feasibility of such a transportation system. The main Let rc 
1∕2
rq1  rq2   Xc ; Y c ; Zc T . Essentially, rc
contributions of this paper can be summarized as follows. describes the position of the mass center of the entire system with
1) Compared with the studies on multiple quadrotors grasping a the undeformed beam. Therefore, rq1 , rp , and rq2 can be expressed as
payload rigidly in [20,21], the payload of concern is flexible, which
rq1  rc −
1∕2R1 0; l; w
l; tT , rp  rc −
1∕2R1 0; l; w
l; tT 
results in a time-varying relative pose between quadrotors.
2) Different from the works on flexible payload transportation in R1 0; y; w
y; tT , and rq2  rc 
1∕2R1 0;l;w
l;tT , respectively.
[22,23], the assumed modes method is adopted to discretize the Let ω1  ω1;1 ; ω1;2 ; ω1;3 T and ω2  ω2;1 ; ω2;2 ; ω2;3 T be the
beam, then a nonlinear dynamics model is derived to describe the angular velocities of two quadrotors expressed in their body frames.
motion of the entire transportation system. A fictitious output is Based on the configuration shown in Fig. 1, one can find that
defined to indicate feasible trajectories for such a transportation task. R2  R1 R12 , where
LQR is used to design state feedback controllers with integral terms 2 3
based on the linearized model. 1  0   0 
6 ∂w
0;t 7
6 0 cos ∂w
l;t ∂w
0;t
∂y − ∂y − sin ∂w
l;t
∂y − ∂y 7
R12 6
 7
(1)
4    5
II. System Model 0 sin ∂w
l;t ∂w
0;t
cos ∂w
l;t ∂w
0;t
∂y − ∂y ∂y − ∂y
A. Notations
In ∈ Rn×n and 0m×n ∈ Rm×n represent the identity matrix and
zero matrix, respectively. The 3D rotation group SO
3  Taking the time derivative of both sides of R2  R1 R12 yields
R2 ω×2  R1 ω×1 R12  R1 R12 ω×12 , i.e., ω2 
RT12 ω×1 R12 ∨  ω12 ,
Downloaded by Hugh Liu on July 8, 2021 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.G005914

fR ∈ R3×3 jRT R  RRT  I3 ; det
R  1g is the set of 3 × 3

orthogonal matrices with determinant of one. z× represents the where
skew-symmetric matrix 0 − z3 z2 ; z3 0 − z1 ; −z2 z1 0 for a three-      T
∂ ∂w
l; t ∂ ∂w
0; t
dimensional vector z  z1 z2 z3 T ∈ R3. The mapping
⋅∨ is ω12  − ; 0; 0
defined as the inverse of the mapping
⋅× , i.e.,
z× ∨  z. The set ∂t ∂y ∂t ∂y
of all skew-symmetric 3 × 3 matrices is represented by the Lie Hence, the total kinetic and potential energies of the whole trans-
algebra so
3. Based on the standard inner product on R3 , an inner portation system can be written as
product on so
3 is defined as hω×1 ; ω×2 i 
1∕2tr
ω×T ×
1 ω2  
hω1 ; ω2 i  ω1 ω2 , where ω1 ∈ R and ω2 ∈ R .
T 3 3 1 1 1
T  mq hr_q1 ; r_q1 i  hω1 ; Jq ω1 i  mq hr_q2 ; r_q2 i
2 2 2
Z
B. Modeling of Quadrotor Transportation System 1 1 l
 hω2 ; Jq ω2 i  ρh_rp ; r_p i dy (2)
As shown in Fig. 1, a flexible beam is connected to two quadrotors 2 2 0
rigidly. Assume that the tips of the flexible beam are connected to the Zl
mass centers of the quadrotors. The inertial frame OXYZ, the body
frame o1 x1 y1 z1 of quadrotor 1, and the body frame o2 x2 y2 z2 of U  mq ghrq1 ; e3 i  mq ghrq2 ; e3 i  ρghrp ; e3 i dy
0
quadrotor 2 are used to describe the system. Note that OXYZ is the Z l 2
Earth-fixed west-south-up frame. The origins of o1 x1 y1 z1 and 1 ∂2 w
y; t
 EI dy (3)
o2 x2 y2 z2 are located at two quadrotors’ mass centers; o1 y1 and 2 0 ∂y2
o2 y2 are along the lengthwise direction of the beam, o1 z1 and o2 z2
are in the local up direction of both quadrotors with an undeformed where mq and Jq  diagfJq1 ; Jq2 ; J q3 g are the mass and the inertia
beam, and o1 x1 and o2 x2 complete right-handed frames. The position matrix of a quadrotor, e3  0; 0; 1T , g  9.81 m∕s2 is the gravita-
vectors of mass centers of these two quadrotors are described by rq1 tional acceleration, and ρ and EI are the linear density and the
and rq2 , respectively. The orthogonal matrix R1 ∈ SO
3 is used to bending stiffness of the flexible beam. Note that the first three terms
describe the rotation from the frame o1 x1 y1 z1 to the frame OXYZ. in Eq. (3) represent the gravitational potential energies and the last
Similarly, R2 ∈ SO
3 represents the rotation matrix from the frame term is the elastic potential energy of the flexible beam.
o2 x2 y2 z2 to the frame OXYZ. Based on the assumed modes method [25], the first n modes of a
In this study, only the small bending deformation of the beam is cantilever beamPcan be used to discretize the flexible payload,
considered and, as shown in Fig. 1, the lateral deformation of an i.e., w
y; t  nj1 Φj
ypj
t, where pj
t and Φj
y are the
arbitrary point on the beam P is represented by w
y; t with y ∈ 0; l, jth-order modal coordinate and the jth-order normalized mode shape
where l is the length of the beam. Hence, in the inertial frame, rp and function of a cantilever beam. Note that Φj
y 
1∕2ch
λj y−
rq2 can be written as rp  X1 ; Y 1 ; Z1 T  R1 0; y; w
y; tT and cos
λj y −
1∕2c1 sh
λj x − sin
λj y, where

Fig. 1 Cooperative transportation system.

 Article in Advance / ENGINEERING NOTES 3

ch
λj l  cos
λj l Note that in Eq. (5), the time derivatives of Euler angles, i.e., ϕ1 , θ1 ,
c1  ψ 1 , are included. Considering the fact that the angular velocity ωi is
sh
λj l  sin
λj l
usually measurable, let η  X_ c ; Y_ c ; Z_ c ; ωT1 ; p_ 1 T . It is clear that
λ1  1.875∕l, λ2  4.694∕l, λ3  7.855∕l, · · · , and the mappings η  A 1 q, _ where A 1  diagfI3 ; A1 ; 1g is a block diagonal matrix.
ch: R → R and sh: R → R are defined as ch
y 
ey  e−y ∕2 and Note that A1 is defined at the end of the paragraph after Eq. (3).
sh
y 
ey − e−y ∕2, respectively; pj
t represents the vibration Equation (5) can be rewritten as
amplitude of the corresponding mode shape. Hence, ∂2 w
y; t∕∂y2
can be written as M_η  Cη  Kq
 gQ (6)

Xn
d2 where M  A −T  −1 −T  −1 −T 
1 MA 1 , C  A 1 CA 1 , g  A 1 g, and
Φj
ypj
t −T
Q  A1 Q.
j1
dy2
C. Model Linearization and Equilibrium at Hover
Without loss of generality, only the fundamental frequency is consid-
ered, i.e., n  1 in this study, and p1
t can be called the fundamental To derive the hover state of the transportation system, the follow-
modal coordinate. Based on the 3-2-1 Euler angles, the rotation matrix ing assumptions are made.
Ri can be written as Assumption 1: The deformation of the beam due to gravity is
negligible.
2 3 Assumption 2: Both quadrotors work in near-hover states; hence, it
cψ i cθi −sψ i cϕi  cψ i sθi sϕi sψ i sϕi  cψ i sθi cϕi
is assumed that ϕi ≪ 1, θi ≪ 1 and ψ i ≪ 1.
Ri  4 sψ i cθi cψ i cϕi  sψ i sθi sϕi −cψ i sϕi  sψ i sθi cϕi 5 (4)
Assumption 3: The flexible payload is subject to small deforma-
−sθi cθi sϕi cθi cϕi tion, i.e., p1 ≪ 1.
Downloaded by Hugh Liu on July 8, 2021 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.G005914

Based on these assumptions, Eq. (6) can be simplified as

where sx  sin x, cx  cos x for x  ϕi ; θi ; ψ i, and ϕi , θi , and ψ i are
roll, pitch, and yaw angles associated with the rotation of the ith q_  η (7)
quadrotor with i  1; 2. Hence, the angular velocity of the ith
quadrotor can be expressed as ωi  ϕ_ i − sθi ψ_ i ; sϕi cθi ψ_ i  cϕi θ_ i ; M0 η_  C0  Kq
  g0  Q0 (8)
cϕi cθi ψ_ i − sϕi θ_ i T  Ai ϕ_ i ; θ_ i ; ψ_ i T , where
2 3
2 3 M01 03×3 M02
1 0 −sθi Where M0  4 03×3 M03 M04 5 with M01 ∈ R3×3 , M02 ∈ R3×1 ,
Ai  4 0 cϕi sϕi cθi 5 MT02 MT04 M05
0 −sϕi cϕi cθi M03 ∈ R , M04 ∈ R3×1 , and M05 ∈ R defined in Appendix A,
3×3

g0  2mg geT3  ρlgeT3 ;01×4 T , and Q0  f1 θ1  f2 θ1 ; −f2
dΦ1 ∕

By treating q  Xc ; Y c ; Zc ; ϕ1 ; θ1 ; ψ 1 ; p1 T ∈ R7 as generalized
coordinates, the generalized force vector Q  Q1 ; Q2 ; : : : ; Q7  can be
calculated based on the virtual work done by the external forces and
torques. Note that the control input of the transportation system of
concern consists of the thrust force fi and torque τ i acting on the
ith quadrotor for i  1; 2. The virtual work for the entire system is
written as δW e  hδrq1 ; f1 R1 e3 i  hRT1 δR1 ; τ ×1 i  hδrq2 ; f2 R2 e3 i
hRT2 δR2 ; τ ×2 i. δrq2 equals to δrq1  δR1 0; l; Φ1
lp1
tT 
R1 0; l; Φ1
lδp1
tT . It should be noted that for i  1; 2,
hRTi δRi ; τ×i i is the inner product of two elements in so
3, whose
definition is given in Sec. II.A. hRT1 δR1 ; τ ×1 i can be expressed as
τ T1
RT1 δR1 ∨  τ1;1
δϕ1 − sθ1 δψ 1   τ1;2
sϕ1 cθ1 δψ 1  cϕ1 δθ1  
τ1;3
cϕ1 cθ1 δψ 1 − sϕ1 δθ1   τ T1 A1 δϕ1 ; δθ; δψ 1 T , where A1 is
defined in last paragraph. Hence, hRT2 δR2 ; τ ×2 i reads τ T2
RT1 δR1 ∨ 
τ T2
RT12 α× R12 ∨ , where
  T
d d
α Φ1
l − Φ1
0 δp1
t; 0; 0
dx dx
Therefore, the virtual work can be rewritten as W e  QT δq.
Hence, based on the Lagrange’s equations of the second kind, the
dynamics equation with q as the generalized coordinate vector can be
given as
dyjyl p1 − f2 ϕ1 − f1 ϕ1 ; f1  f2 ; τ1  τ4 
1∕2lf2 −
1∕2lf1 ;
τ2  τ5 ; τ3  τ6 ;
1∕2f2 
dΦ1 ∕dyjyl τ4 −
1∕2f1 T , where
fτ1 ; τ2 ; τ3 g and fτ4 ; τ5 ; τ6 g are the elements of τ 1 and τ 2 , respectively.
The definition of C0 can be found in Appendix B.
In the equilibrium hover state, all generalized velocities and accel-
erations are expected to be zero. Hence, one has
 0  g0  Q0
Kq (9)
There are infinite sets of solutions to the above equation. For
example, fq0  0; f1  f2  mq g 
ρlg∕2; τ1  τ2  τ4 
τ5  0; τ3  −τ6  constant ≠ 0g can be one solution. The nonzero
τ3 and τ6 will cause the internal twist of the payload. Such an internal
generalized force will not contribute to the object motion at all. On the
contrary, the internal generalized forces may lead to the damage of the
payload or some undesired phenomena, such as the twist of such a
beam-like payload. Hence, the hover configuration with zero or small
internal generalized forces is preferred, i.e., fX c  constant;
Y c  constant; Zc  constant; ψ 1  constant; ϕ1  0; θ1  0; p1 
0; f1  f2  mq g 
ρlg∕2; τ1  τ2  τ3  τ4  τ5  τ6  0g is
the expected hover state for such a transportation system. Around such
a hover state, the generalized force term on the right hand of Eq. (9) can
be expressed as
  

ρlg dΦ1

M
 q C q_ Kq
  g  Q Q0 
2mq g  ρlgθ1 ; − mq g  p
(5) 2 dy
yl 1

where M,
 C,
 and 1 1
−
2mq g  ρlgϕ1 ; f1  f2 ; τ1  τ4  lf2 − lf1 ; τ2
2 2
 Z l 2 
T
d Φ1
y 2 1 dΦ1

1
K  diag 01×6 ;
 dy  τ5 ; τ 3  τ6 ; f2  τ − f
0 dy2 2 dy
yl 4 2 1

are the inertia matrix, the Coriolis and centrifugal matrix, and the The dynamic model of the transportation system of concern can be
stiffness matrix. g  2mg geT3  ρlgeT3 ; −ρgcθ1 sϕ1
∫ l0 Φ1
y dy − linearized as Eq. (7) and

l∕2p1 ; −ρgsθ1 cϕ1
∫ l0 Φ1
y dy −
l∕2p1 ; 0; ρgcθ1 cϕ1 ×
∫ l0 Φ1
y dyT . M0 η_  Kq  B1 f (10)
 4 Article in Advance / ENGINEERING NOTES

where K  K − K with The proof is divided into the following steps:

1) Given rC and p1 as fictitious outputs, we can have their second-
 
02×3 K1 order time derivatives. From Eq. (12), ϕ1 , θ1 , and f1  f2 can be
K  written as an expression of p1 , rC , and p 1 .
05×7
2) With ϕ1 and θ1 from last step and ψ 1 in Y and their first-order
in which and second-order time derivatives, ω _ 1 can be calculated from the
::: ::: ::: :::
definition of ω1 . Note that r C , p 1 , r C , and p 1 are necessary in
2 3 this step.
0 2mq g  ρlg 0  0  3) Based on Eq. (13), with the fictitious outputs p1 and τ 1 , and ω
_1
K1  4
5
dΦ1

−2mq g − ρlg 0 0 − mq g  ρlg from last step, τ4 , τ6 , and −
1∕2lf2 
1∕2lf1  τ5 can be
2 dy yl
obtained. Similarly, from Eq. (14), one can reach

1 dΦ1

1
It should be noted that in Eq. (10), f ∈ R8 and B1 ∈ R7×8 are defined f2  τ − f
as 2 dx
xl 5 2 1
h iT Since
f  f1 ; τ1 ; τ2 ; τ3 ; f2 ; τ4 ; τ5 ; τ6

2 3 dΦ1

1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ≠
6 7 dx
xl l
6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 07
6 7
6 7 τ5 , f1 , and f2 can be computed from the values of
6 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 07
6 7 −
1∕2lf2 
1∕2lf1  τ5 ,
6 7
Downloaded by Hugh Liu on July 8, 2021 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.G005914

B1  6
6 −l∕2 1 0 0 l∕2 1 0 077

6 7 1 dΦ1

1
6 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 07 f2  τ − f
6
6
7
7 2 dx
xl 5 2 1
6 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 17
4
5
dΦ1
and f1  f2 .
−1∕2 0 0 0 1∕2 dx xl 0 0
So far, all states and inputs of the transportation system have
been determined by Y, Y, _ and Y. This completes the proof of
where f1  f1 − mq g −
ρgl∕2 and f2  f2 − mq g −
ρgl∕2. Lemma 1. □
Essentially, the terms mq g 
ρgl∕2 in f1 and f2 aim to compensate
for the quadrotors and payload gravities. Let χ  qT ; ηT T . Equa-
III. Control System Design
tion (10) can be written as
For a quadrotor or the cooperative transportation of a rigid payload
χ_  Aχ  Bf (11) in [20], the popular hierarchical control methods consist of an inner
loop and an outer loop, where the outer loop aims to realize the
    position control by providing the total thrust and the reference roll
07×7 I7 07×8
where A  and B  . and pitch angles and the inner loop generates the control torques to
−M−1
0 K 07×7 M−1
0 B1 drive the system to track the desired attitude. However, in this study,
as shown in Eqs. (12–14), the inner-outer loop control methods are
D. Fictitious Outputs not applicable anymore because one cannot extract the reference roll
An open question for such a transportation system is what varia- and pitch angles from the position control due to the coupling
bles we can control directly; i.e., how to define feasible trajectories. between the quadrotor motion and payload vibration. The funda-
This section aims to discuss this in the near-hover configuration; mental reason is that the payload deformation changes the relative
i.e., Eq. (10) is used. Here the fictitious outputs mean the variables position and orientation of the quadrotors. Instead, this section aims
that can be used to explicitly express all states and inputs based on the to design a feedback controller based on the linearized model (11)
fictitious outputs and a finite number of its derivatives. The following using the LQR algorithm for the transportation system.
lemma gives the fictitious output of the transportation system in
this study. A. Measurement of Modal Coordinate and Velocity
Lemma 1: Y 
rC ; ψ 1 ; p1 ; τ 1  ∈ R3 × R × R × R3 is the set of This section presents a method based on the kinematic relationship
fictitious outputs for the system governed by Eq. (10) in the near- between two quadrotors to obtain the modal coordinate and velocity
hover configuration. of the flexible beam. It is assumed that the states of both quadrotors
Proof: Equation (10) can be rewritten as can be measured or estimated. The first three elements of the gener-
 
alized coordinate vector represent the position vector of the middle
ρlg dΦ1

point between two quadrotors in the inertial frame; i.e., rC can be

M01 rC  M02 p 1  mq g  p 
2mq g  ρlgθ1 ;
2 dx
xl 1 calculated using
1∕2
rq1  rq2 . According to the definition of rq2 ,
T w
l; t  Φ1
lp1 can be written as the third entry of the vector
−
2mq g  ρlgϕ1 ; f1  f2 (12) RT1
rq2 − rq1 . As shown in the paragraph after Eq. (3), Φ1
y
represents the first-order normalized mode shape function of a can-
 T tilever beam and is defined as Φ1
y 
1∕2ch
λ1 y − cos
λ1 y −
1 1
1∕2c1 sh
λ1 x − sin
λ1 y, where y ∈ 0; l and λ1  1.875∕l.
M03 ω
_ 1  M04 p 1  τ1  τ4 ; τ2 − lf2  lf1  τ5 ; τ3  τ6
2 2 It is clear that Φ1
l  1 holds. Hence, the modal coordinate p1
(13) can be written as RT1
rq2 − rq1 3 , where ⋅3 represents the third
element of a vector. Similarly, p_ 1 can also be obtained via
Z l 2  −ω×1 RT1
rq2 − rq1   RT1
r_q2 − r_q1 3 .
d Φ1
x 2
MT02 rC  MT04 ω
_ 1  M05 p 1  dxp1
0 dx2

B. Full State Feedback with Integral Action
1 dΦ1

1
 f2  τ − f (14) In the derivation of the linearized model (11), the gravity of the
2 dx
xl 5 2 1 beam is neglected according to Assumption 1. As shown in Sec. II.C,
 Article in Advance / ENGINEERING NOTES 5

the equilibrium configuration agrees with the undeformed situation Table 1 Parameters of quadrotors and
shown in Fig. 1 without the consideration of the deformation of the payload
beam caused by gravity. However, for a practical payload, its gravity Parameter Value Unit
will result in a stable configuration with nonzero beam deformation
mq 1.121 kg
only with the supports at tips; i.e., there would exist a steady-state error
Jq diagf0.01; 0.0082; 0.0148g kg ⋅ m2
if the classical feedback controller based on Eq. (11) is applied to
control the nonlinear system in Eq. (6). Furthermore, for the trans- g 9.81 m∕s2
portation system in this study, there may exist some external disturb- ρ 0.138 kg/m
ances and uncertainties. For example, the uncertain payload or l 0.83 m
quadrotor mass may cause that the compensation for gravity is not EI 6.46 N ⋅ m2
exactly equal to the real quadrotor and payload gravities; i.e., some
constant forces in the vertical direction may act on the closed-loop
system. These constant forces will also cause some steady-state errors
that may prevent the payload from moving to the desired position and P is the solution to the Riccati equation A T P  PA  −
 −1
attitude. One method to provide zero steady-state error is to include an PB
 R P  Q  0.
integral term. Considering that the control of the payload’s position and Figure 2 shows the control diagram of the designed controller (16).
yaw angle is more important in a transportation task, some new Based on the feedback of the system state and the reference state, the
variables representing the integral of the tracking errors in XC , Y C , control commands for both quadrotors can be obtained with the gain
ZC , and ψ 1 directions are introduced to augment the linear system in designed in Eq. (16). Note that the calculation can be done on the
Eq. (11). Denote Ξ1  ∫ t0
rc − rref c  ds, where rc is the desired
ref onboard computer of one of these two quadrotors; for example, the
transportation position in the inertial frame. Note that for a vector first quadrotor is adopted to calculate the control commands. Then,
x  x1 ; · · · ; xn T , ∫ t0 x ds is defined as ∫ t0 x1 ds; · · · ; ∫ t0 xn dsT with the last four elements of f are sent to the second quadrotor. What the
Downloaded by Hugh Liu on July 8, 2021 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.G005914

n ∈ N . Let Ξ2  ∫ t0
ψ 1 − ψ ref second quadrotor should do is to implement the received control

1  ds, where ψ 1 is the desired yaw
ref
command directly.
angle for the first quadrotor. The augmented linear system can be
written as
2 3 2 3 2 32 3 2 3
e_ Ae  Bf A 014×4 e B IV. Numerical Simulation
6 7 6 7 6 76 7 6 7
6 Ξ_ 1 7  6 rc − rref 7  6 I1 03×4 76 Ξ1 7  6 03×8 7f In the numerical simulations in this section, the controller designed
4 5 4 c 5 4 54 5 4 5 based on the augmented linear model in Eq. (15) is used to control the
Ξ_ 2 ψ1 − ψ1ref
I2 01×4 Ξ2 01×8 nonlinear dynamics model in Eq. (5) to transport a flexible beam
   payload from the initial pose to the desired pose. The parameters of
A e B f (15)
these quadrotors and payload are given in Table 1. At the initial time,
the generalized variables q  0 and η  0; i.e., the center of the entire
where I21  I3 03×11 , I22  01×5 1 01×8 , and e  χ − χ ref with system rests at 0; 0; 0T without any initial deformation.
χ ref as the desired state. According to Lemma 1, for the transportation
system of concern, it is assumed that the desired Euler angles and the A. Verification of Controller in Eq. (16)
modal coordinate are set as zero and the generalized velocity q_ is
To prove the effectiveness of the designed controller in Eq. (16), it
expected to be zero; i.e., χ_ ref  Aχ ref  0 holds. For the above
is assumed that there exist some errors in the measurement or
system, once the system is stable with a well-designed control input
estimation of payload’s and quadrotors’ masses. Without loss of
f, one has Ξ_ 1  0 and Ξ_ 2  0, which implies e  0; i.e., the system generality, ρ and mq are chosen as 0.11 kg∕s and 0.897 kg in the
arrives at the desired position and yaw angle with zero steady- controller design, and the values of ρ and mq in Table 1 are used in the
state error.
control plant. This causes a 20% uncertainty in the mass of the entire
Design the feedback controller with integral terms as
system. The desired generalized variables are defined as follows:
f  −K1 eT ; ΞT1 ; Ξ2 T (16) 8
< qref  0; 0; 1; 0; 0; 0; 0 ; ηref  0;
> T t < 10 s
where K1 is the feedback gain. To stabilize the system in Eq. (15), one qref  0.5; 0; 1; 0; 0; 0; 0T ; ηref  0; 10 s ≤ t < 20 s (17)
>
:
needs to choose a matrix K1 such that all eigenvalues of A  − B K1 qref  0.5; 0.5; 1; 0; 0; 0; 0T ; ηref  0; t ≥ 20 s
have negative real parts. LQR is a well-known controller design
technique that provides optimal feedback gain for a linear state space That is, in the first 10 s, the system is expected to take off and stay at
system. In infinite-horizon LQR algorithm, the feedback gain is the hover state. From 10 s, it is desired to control the system to move
designed as K1  R −1 BT P to minimize the quadratic cost function 0.5 m along X and Y directions.
J0  ∫ ∞ T  
0 e Qe  f Rf dt, where Q ∈ R
T   18×18
and R ∈ R8×8 are To implement the controller in Eq. (16), the matrices Q and R in the
positive semidefinite and positive definite matrices, respectively. cost function of LQR are chosen as

Fig. 2 Control diagram.

 6 Article in Advance / ENGINEERING NOTES

1
Q  diagf3; 6.5; 20; 0.01; 0.01; 1; 1; 0.015; 0.0525; 0.015; 0.01;

XC (m)
0.001; 0.01; 0.1; 0.2; 0.2; 0.4; 0.2g 0.5
2 3
diagf0.3; 2; 1; 0.5g −0.2; 01;3 T 04;3 0
6 7 0 10 20 30 40 50
R  6
4 −0.2; 01;3  0.3 01;3 7
5 Time (s)
03×4 03;1 diagf2; 1; 0.5g 1
0.52

YC (m)
0.5 0.5
As shown in Fig. 3, there are no steady-state errors in XC , Y C , and 30 40 50
ZC directions. As shown in Fig. 4, in the stable configuration, the 0
modal coordinate of the beam deformation caused by the beam 0 10 20 30 40 50
gravity is less than 0.0035; hence, it is reasonable to make Time (s)
Assumption 1 in the system analysis and controller design. Further- 1.5
more, Fig. 4 indicates that the roll angle is not zero with the small

ZC (m)
1
beam deformation at the stable configuration. The main reason is that Desired trajectory
in the controller (16), only the integrals of system position and yaw 0.5 Response
angle tracking errors are included. Because of the nonzero roll angle, 0
0 10 20 30 40 50
the thrust forces provided by the quadrotors are not along the vertical
axis in the inertial frame. Time (s)
Fig. 5 The rC with stair-step signal as reference trajectory.
Downloaded by Hugh Liu on July 8, 2021 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.G005914

1
XC (m)

0.5 B. Tracking Stair-Step Signals

0 In the last case, as shown in Fig. 4, large attitude maneuvers are
0 10 20 30 40 50 necessary due to the step reference trajectory. In this case, stair-step
Time (s) signals are chosen as the reference trajectories for the transportation
1 mission. As shown in Fig. 5, the system is expected to move 0.1 m
0.52 each second along X axis from 10 to 15 s, and fly 0.1 m∕s in
YC (m)

0.5 0.5 Y direction from 20 to 25 s. All system and control parameters are
kept the same as those in the previous case, and the controller in
30 40 50
0 Eq. (16) is used. As shown in Fig. 5, the system can be driven to the
0 10 20 30 40 50 desired position with zero steady-state error. The time histories of
Time (s)
the attitude angles of the first quadrotor and the modal coordinate of
1.5 the beam are given in Fig. 6. As indicated in Fig. 6, the maximum roll
and pitch angles are much smaller than those in Fig. 4, and the
ZC (m)

1
Desired trajectory maximum magnitude of the excited deformation is also smaller.
0.5 The main reason is that the control inputs in X and Y directions are
Response
0 larger at the step times in Fig. 4 than those at stair-step times in Fig. 6;
0 10 20 30 40 50
i.e., the introduction of stair-step reference trajectories can avoid
Time (s)
large control inputs.
Fig. 3 The rC with the designed controller (16).

0.6 0.2
Euler angles (rad)
Euler angles (rad)

0.4 1 1

1
0.1 1
0.2
1 1
0
0
-0.2
-0.4 -0.1
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
Time (s) Time (s)

0.04 0.01
Modal coordinate

Modal coordinate

0.02

0 0

-0.02

-0.04 -0.01
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
Time (s) Time (s)
Fig. 4 Euler angles and modal coordinate with the designed controller Fig. 6 Euler angles and modal coordinate with stair-step signal as
(16). reference trajectory.
 Article in Advance / ENGINEERING NOTES 7

V. Experimental Verification
This section presents the experiments conducted using the York
University Autonomous Unmanned Vehicle (YU-AUV) Facility at
York University. As shown in Fig. 7, the experimental system mainly
consists of an OptiTrack motion capture system, a workstation, a
router, two QDrone quadrotors [26] from Quanser Consulting, Inc.,
and a wooden ruler as the payload to be transported. The workstation
can calculate the positions and orientations of quadrotors in the
inertial frame with a sampling rate of 100 Hz based on the measure-
ments from 16 Flex 13 cameras in the motion capture system. The
mean measurement error of the motion capture system is about
0.6 mm. Then rC and p1 obtained based on these two quadrotors’
pose, and the yaw angle of the first quadrotor are sent to the onboard
computer of the first quadrotor via Wi-Fi. Based on the optimal
feedback gain from the LQR algorithm, the eight-dimensional con-
trol command for both quadrotors can be calculated in the first
quadrotor with the attitude and angular velocity information from
Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) at 1 kHz. The sensitivity of gyro is
16.4 LSB/°/s with the range 2000°∕s, and the zero-rate offset of the
gyro in IMU is less than 3 °∕s. Quadrotor 1 will adopt the first four
elements as its own control command and then send the remaining
Downloaded by Hugh Liu on July 8, 2021 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.G005914
payload. The system parameters in experiments are the same as those
in Table 1. The weight matrices in the cost function of LQR are
chosen the same as those in Sec. IV.A.
Two tests with different reference trajectories are performed.
According to the simulation results in Sec. IV, the reference trajecto-
ries are chosen as stair-step signals. Also, to show the difference
between experimental and numerical results, two numerical simula-
tions with the same setup as that in experimental tests are performed.
In the first test, the system is expected to move 0.13 m∕s for 10 s
along X axis with a height of 0.5 m. The desired values of all other
generalized coordinates are zero. Figure 8 presents the time histories
of the position vector of the middle point of these two quadrotors,
Euler angles of the first quadrotor, and the modal coordinate of
the beam in both experiment and simulation. fϕ1 ; θ1 ; ψ 1 g and
fϕ1s ; θ1s ; ψ 1s g represent the sets of the Euler angles of the first
quadrotor in experiment and simulation, respectively. As shown in
Fig. 8a, the system starts taking off at t  0. The final tracking errors
in X and Y directions are within 3.5 and 10 cm in the experiment,
respectively. Also, there exists a nonzero steady-state error in the first
15 s in ZC direction, and the introduction of integral terms in the
controller (16) eliminates this steady-state error finally. As shown in
Fig. 8b, the maximum pitch angle to achieve the movement in X

four elements to the second quadrotor. The red dashed curve in Fig. 7
shows such data flow from the first quadrotor to the second one via
Wi-Fi; i.e., quadrotor 2 does not need to calculate the control com-
mand by itself, and it can implement the received command directly.
The real-time control of quadrotors is realized using QUARC soft-
ware from Quanser, Inc. Furthermore, as shown in Fig. 7, neodym-
ium bar magnets are used to connect the quadrotor bodies and the
Fig. 7 Experimental quadrotor transportation system.
direction is less than 0.3 rad. Because the normalized mode shape
function of a cantilever beam is used, the deformation of the point
under the second quadrotor on the beam is less than 0.025 m with the
modal coordinate less than 0.025.
In the second test, the system is expected to move 1.9 m along
Y axis at the height of 0.5 m and keep other generalized coordinates
zero. The desired trajectory in Y direction is the stair-step signal given
as the blue dashed curve in the second subfigure of Fig. 9a. Both the
experimental and simulation results are given in Fig. 9. As shown in
Fig. 9a, the entire system takes off at t  0 and the transportation
mission starts at t  2.5 s. In the transportation mission, X C is
controlled within 3.5 cm. In Y C direction, the tracking error is less
than 10 cm, which implies that the designed controller can complete
the payload transportation mission successfully. Also, as shown in
Fig. 9b, the modal coordinate of the excited vibration of the flexible
beam is less than 0.025; i.e., only a small deformation happens for the
flexible payload during the transportation mission. As indicated in
Fig. 9c, the movement from right to left is achieved by a negative
attitude maneuver in the roll direction. The transportation task in
X direction in Fig. 8b needs larger pitch angle than that in Fig. 9b
because the movement in X direction is mainly coupled with the
attitude maneuver in pitch direction.
In conclusion, in both tests, the flexible payload transportation task
is completed with satisfactory tracking performance and only small
dynamic deformations of the beam are excited.

1.5 0.6
Euler angles (rad)
XC (m)

1 1.35 1
0.5 1.3 0.4
1.25 1
0 16 18 20 0.2
-0.5 1
0 5 10 15 20 0 1s
Time (s) -0.2 1s
0.2 -0.4 1s
YC (m)

0 10 20
0 Time (s)
-0.2 0.04
0 5 10 15 20
Modal coordinate

Time (s) 0.02

0.6 0
ZC (m)

0.4 Desired -0.02 Measured

0.2 Measured
Simulated
Simulated
0 -0.04
0 5 10 15 20 10 0 515 20
Time (s) Time (s)
a) rC b) Euler angles and modal coordinate
Fig. 8 The first experiment with the desired movement in X direction.
 8 Article in Advance / ENGINEERING NOTES

0.1

XC (m)
0.05
0
-0.05
0 5 10 15 20
Time (s)
3

YC (m)
2
1 2
1.9
0 1.815 20 25
-1
0 5 10 15 20
Time (s)
0.6
ZC (m)

0.4 Desired
0.2 Measured
0 Simulated
0 5 10 15 20
a) rC Time (s)

0.4
Euler angles (rad)

0.2 1
Downloaded by Hugh Liu on July 8, 2021 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.G005914

0 1s

1s
-0.2 1s
0 10 20
0.04
Modal coordinate

0.02

0 Time (s)

-0.02 Measured
Simulated
-0.04
0 5 10 15 20
Time (s)
b) Euler angles and modal coordinate c) The snapshots
Fig. 9 The second experiment with the desired movement in Y direction.

VI. Conclusions Appendix B: Detailed Expressions of C0

The transportation of a flexible beam using two quadrotors was C0 can be written as
studied in this paper. The payload was connected to the quadrotor
bodies rigidly. Considering the bending deformation of the beam, a 2 3
nonlinear dynamics model was developed for the transportation 0 0 0 0 C0;1 0 C0;2
60 0 0 C0;3 0 0 C0;4 7
system. Based on the definition of fictitious outputs in the near-hover 6 7
configuration, it can be concluded that one can control the positions 60 0 0 0 0 0 0 7
6 7
of the middle point of two quadrotors, the yaw angle of the first C0  6
60 0 0 0 C0;5 C0;6 0 7 7 (B1)
quadrotor, and the beam deformation using eight propellers of these 60 0 0 C0;7 0 C0;8 C0;9 7
6 7
two quadrotors. An augmented linearized system was constructed to 40 0 0 C0;10 C0;11 0 C0;12 5
design controller based on the feedback of the system state and the 0 0 0 0 C0;13 C0;14 0
integrals of the tracking errors of partial generalized coordinates.
Numerical simulations show that the controller with integral terms
can eliminate the steady-state error in position and yaw angle where C0;1  ρ
∫ l0 Φ1 dy −
l∕2p_ 1 , C0;2  ρ
∫ l0 Φ1 dy −
l∕2θ_ 1 ,
tracking. Experimental results indicate that the designed controller C0;3  −C0;1 , C0;4  −ρ
∫ l0 Φ1 dy −
l∕2ϕ_ 1 , C0;5  −
J q1 
can drive the transportation system to the desired position with a
satisfactory tracking performance. Jq2 − Jq3 ψ_ 1 , C0;6 
−Jq2  Jq3 − Jq1 θ_ 1 , C0;7  −C0;5 , C0;8 

Jq2 − J q3  Jq1 θ_ 1 
1∕2
−Jq3 − J q2  Jq1 
dΦ1 ∕dyjyl p_ 1 ,
C0;9 
1∕2
dΦ1 ∕dyjyl
−Jq2 − Jq3  J q1 ψ, _ C0;10 
Jq2 −
Appendix A: Detailed Expressions of the Inertia Jq3 − Jq1 −
1∕12ρl −
1∕2mq l θ1 , C0;11 
1∕2ρlp_ 1 ∫ l0 Φ1 dy −
3 2 _
Matrices
1∕12ρl3 ϕ_ 1 −
1∕2mq l2 ϕ_ 1 − ρp_ 1 ∫ l0 yΦ1 dy −
1∕2mq lp_ 1 −
1∕2
M01 , M02 , M03 , M04 , and M05 are M01  diagf2m1  ρl; p_ 1 Jq1
dΦ1 ∕dyjyl 
1∕2p_ 1 Jq2
dΦ1 ∕dyjyl 
1∕2Jq3 p_ 1 ×
2m1  ρl; 2m1  ρlg, M02  0; 0; ρ
∫ l0 Φ1 dy −
l∕2T , M03 
dΦ1 ∕dyjyl − Jq1 ϕ_ 1  Jq2 ϕ_ 1 − Jq3 ϕ_ 1 , C0;12  −
1∕2θ_ 1 ×
diagf
1∕12ρl3 
1∕2mq l2 2Jq1 ;2Jq2 ;
1∕12ρl3 
1∕2mq l2 
−ρl∫ 0 Φ1
y dy  Jq1
dΦ1 ∕dyjyl − J q2
dΦ1 ∕dyjyl −
l

2Jq3 g, M04  Jq1
dΦ1 ∕dyjyl −
1∕2ρl∫ l0 Φ1 dy  ρ∫ l0 yΦ1 dt  Jq3
dΦ1 ∕dyjyl  2ρ∫ l0 yΦ1
y dy  mql, C0;13  −
1∕2ψ_ 1 ×

1∕2mq l; 0; 0T , and M05 
mq ∕2  Jq1

dΦ1 ∕dyjyl 2 
dΦ1 ∕dyjyl
−Jq3  J q2  Jq1 , and C0;14  −
1∕2θ_ 1 ×

1∕4ρl − ρ∫ l0 Φ1 dy  ρ∫ l0 Φ21 dy, respectively.
dΦ1 ∕dyjyl
−Jq3  J q2  Jq1 .
 Article in Advance
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by funding from the Innovation
for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program from the
Department of National Defence (DND) under Grant CFPMN2-
051-YorkU. Any opinions and conclusions in this work are strictly
those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views, positions, or
policies of, and are not endorsed by, IDEaS, DND, or the Government
of Canada.
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