STABILITY ANALYSIS OF A UAV EQUIPPED WITH A ROBOTIC ARM

The paper presents a detailed stability analysis of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with a 2-DOF robotic arm designed for grasping and manipulating differ-ent payloads. UAV-manipulators have got increasing attention due to their ability to per-form complex manipulation tasks while flying. Despite the advantages, these systems face various challenges, and their control strategies need to be examined to ensure reliable and stable performance in such dynamic conditions. To address these challenges, the dynamics of the UAV-manipulator system are discussed in the paper. The manipulator's kinematics are modeled according to the Denavit-Hartenberg convention. The full system dynamics are derived using the Euler-Lagrange method, considering both UAV and robotic arm dy-namics with their coupled interactions. A key contribution of this work is the formulation of the inertia matrix of the system as a constant nominal component and a time-varying uncertainty as a result of the effects of manipulator motion and object interaction. This separation enables a more structured and detailed analysis of the system's stability under changing robot configurations and payloads. To support the analysis, a Matlab/Simulink model of the UAV-manipulator system is developed based on the derived symbolic dy-namics. The simulation model allows to test various manipulation scenarios and helps to monitor the key indicators of stability such as the system's response, center-of-mass be-havior, and the effects of payload variations on the system’s stability. The results empha-size the impact of the manipulator's configuration and the payload on the overall dynam-ics of the system. The proposed framework serves as a foundation for the future develop-ment of adaptive or data-driven control strategies that can address the dynamic uncertain-ties of the UAV-manipulator system. Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicle, robotic manipulation, object grasping, stability analysis, Matlab/Simulink.