An Open MuJoCo Simulation Framework for a Quadrotor Carrying a Tendon-Driven Soft Continuum Arm

Key points

• This paper describes an open-source simulation framework, built on the MuJoCo physics engine, for a quadrotor that carries a tendon-driven soft continuum arm underneath its body.1
• The arm is modelled as a pseudo-rigid-body chain of twelve segments joined by pairs of orthogonal compliant hinges.1
• A geometric tracking controller on $SE(3)$ flies the vehicle; its rotor allocation matrix is generated directly from the model description.1
• We report the full set of modelling choices and parameters, and we evaluate the framework in four simulated scenarios: a \SI{36}{\second} mission with a figure-eight and a tendon-driven tip sweep, an attitude-gain study, a quasi-static characterization of the bending workspace, and an impulsive disturbance applied to the arm tip.1

Sources (1)

• [1]An Open MuJoCo Simulation Framework for a Quadrotor Carrying a Tendon-Driven Soft Continuum Arm
  arXiv (AI, ML, NLP, CV, robotics, multi-agent) · Oct 11, 03:32 AM

  Combining aerial robots with soft continuum manipulators promises safe, compliant interaction with the environment, but the coupled dynamics of a free-flying base and a highly deformable, underactuated arm are difficult to study without a suitable simulator.

  This paper describes an open-source simulation framework, built on the MuJoCo physics engine, for a quadrotor that carries a tendon-driven soft continuum arm underneath its body.

Extractive summary: sentences quoted from the sources.