Raul D. S. G. Campilho

In the present day, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology is being used for a multitude of inspection operations, including those in offshore structures such as wind-farms. Due to the distance of these structures to the coast, drones need to be carried to these structures via ship. To achieve a completely autonomous operation, the UAV can greatly benefit from an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) to transport the UAV to the operation location and coordinate a successful landing between the two. This work presents the concept of a four-link parallel platform to perform wave-motion synchronization to facilitate UAV landings. The parallel platform consists of two base floaters connected with rigid rods, linked by linear actuators to a top mobile platform for the landing of a UAV. Using an inverse kinematics approach, a study of the position of the cylinders for greater range of motion and a workspace analysis is achieved. The platform makes use of a feedback controller to reduce the total motion of the landing platform. Using the robotic operating system (ROS) and Gazebo to emulate wave motions and represent the physical model and actuator system, the platform control system was successfully validated.