A Study on Impact-Aware Aerial Robots Colliding with the Environment at Non-vanishing Speed

Enabling aerial robots to handle dynamic contacts happening at non-vanishing speeds can enlarge the range of their applications. In this work, we propose an impact-aware strategy to allow aerial multirotor robots to recover from impacts. The method leverages a reactive strategy not requiring low-level changes to the motion controller commonly implemented onboard quadrotors, which might be not viable or not desirable for most users. Extensive simulation tests show that the proposed strategy considerably increases the tolerated velocity at impact in tasks in which the robot either picks an object up or collides against an object to clear its way. Preliminary experimental results using Crazyflie UAVs are also presented.