Path Following of a Quadrotor With a Cable-Suspended Payload

This article addresses the design of a path following controller for a payload tethered to a quadrotor. Specifically, the goal is to design a smooth dynamic feedback controller that forces the suspended payload to converge and follow a large class of embedded curves. The given curve is treated as a smooth manifold, and set stabilization is used to find the maximal control invariant manifold. The controller design guarantees that once the aerial robot approaches the path, the payload never leaves the path. The performance of the proposed controller is verified through simulations with practical sensor noise and parametric uncertainties. Moreover, experimental implementation and verification of the proposed control scheme are performed on a Quanser UAV platform in an indoor flying arena.