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Main Authors: Li, Shuai, Duong, Ton T. H., Zanotto, Damiano
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.18905
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author Li, Shuai
Duong, Ton T. H.
Zanotto, Damiano
author_facet Li, Shuai
Duong, Ton T. H.
Zanotto, Damiano
contents The collaboration between humans and robots is critical in many robotic applications, especially in those requiring physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). Previous research in pHRI has largely focused on robotic manipulators, employing impedance or admittance control to maintain operational safety. Conversely, research in human-quadrotor cooperative load transportation (CLT) is still in its infancy. This letter introduces a novel admittance controller designed for safe and effective human-quadrotor CLT using a quadrotor equipped with an actively-controlled winch. The proposed method accounts for the system's coupled dynamics, allowing the quadrotor and its cable to dynamically adapt to contact forces during CLT tasks, thereby enhancing responsiveness. We experimentally validated the task-adaptive capability of the controller across the entire CLT process, including in-place loading/unloading and load transporting tasks. To this end, we compared the system performances against a conventional approach, using both variable and fixed cable lengths under low- and high-stiffness conditions. Results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the conventional approach in terms of system responsiveness and motion smoothness, leading to improved CLT capabilities.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_18905
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Task-Adaptive Admittance Control for Human-Quadrotor Cooperative Load Transportation with Dynamic Cable-Length Regulation
Li, Shuai
Duong, Ton T. H.
Zanotto, Damiano
Robotics
The collaboration between humans and robots is critical in many robotic applications, especially in those requiring physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). Previous research in pHRI has largely focused on robotic manipulators, employing impedance or admittance control to maintain operational safety. Conversely, research in human-quadrotor cooperative load transportation (CLT) is still in its infancy. This letter introduces a novel admittance controller designed for safe and effective human-quadrotor CLT using a quadrotor equipped with an actively-controlled winch. The proposed method accounts for the system's coupled dynamics, allowing the quadrotor and its cable to dynamically adapt to contact forces during CLT tasks, thereby enhancing responsiveness. We experimentally validated the task-adaptive capability of the controller across the entire CLT process, including in-place loading/unloading and load transporting tasks. To this end, we compared the system performances against a conventional approach, using both variable and fixed cable lengths under low- and high-stiffness conditions. Results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the conventional approach in terms of system responsiveness and motion smoothness, leading to improved CLT capabilities.
title Task-Adaptive Admittance Control for Human-Quadrotor Cooperative Load Transportation with Dynamic Cable-Length Regulation
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.18905