  Aerial robotic systems have raised emerging interests in recent years. In
this article, we propose a novel aerial manipulator system that is
significantly different from conventional aerial discrete manipulators: An
Aerial Continuum Manipulator (AeCoM). The AeCoM compactly integrates a
quadrotor with a tendon-driven continuum robotic manipulator. Due to the
compact design and the payload bearing ability of tendon-driven continuum
robotic arms, the proposed system solved the conflict between payload capacity
and dexterity lying in conventional aerial manipulators. Two contributions are
made in this paper: 1) a sensor-based kinematic model is developed for precise
modeling in the presence of variable loading; and 2) a tendon slacking
prevention system is developed in the presence of aggressive motions. The
detailed design of the system is presented and extensive experimental
validations have been performed to validate the system self-initialization,
payload capacity, precise kinematic modeling with variable end-effector (EE)
loadings during aerial grasping and tendon-slacking prevention. The
experimental results demonstrate that the proposed novel aerial continuum
manipulator system solves the constraints in conventional aerial manipulators
and has more potential applications in clustered environments.
