Related papers: Ultralight Solar Powered Hybrid Research Drone
Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) makes it possible to reach a better solution than by optimizing each discipline independently. In particular, the optimal structure of a drone won't be the same depending on the material used. The…
EarthFinder is a Probe Mission concept selected for study by NASA for input to the 2020 astronomy decadal survey. This study is currently active and a final white paper report is due to NASA at the end of calendar 2018. We are tasked with…
Landing is the most challenging and risky aspect of multirotor drone flight, and only simple landing methods exist for autonomous drones. We explore methods for autonomous drone landing in two scenarios. In the first scenario, we examine…
Collaborative aerial transportation of tethered payloads is fundamentally limited by space, power, and weight constraints. Conventional approaches rely on static equilibrium conditions, where each vehicle tilts to generate the forces that…
Exploring and inspecting \emph{Hidden Spaces}, defined as environments whose entrances are accessible only to aerial robots but remain unexplored due to geometric constraints, limited flight time, and communication loss, remains a major…
Single locomotion robots often struggle to adapt in highly variable or uncertain environments, especially in emergencies. In this paper, a multi-modal deformable robot is introduced that can both fly and drive. Compatibility issues with…
We perform experiments on the wireless communication between a drone flying at different heights and a commercial 5G base station. An Android-based tool deployed on a 5G test platform is used to record radio link parameters in the up- and…
We explore new opportunities for solar physics that could be realized by future missions providing sustained observations from vantage points away from the Sun-Earth line. These include observations from the far side of the Sun, at high…
This paper introduces SHIELD, a Spherical-Projection Hybrid-Frontier Integration for Efficient LiDAR-based Drone exploration method. Although laser LiDAR offers the advantage of a wide field of view, its application in UAV exploration still…
Due to the limitation of the drone's load capacity, various specific tasks need to be accomplished by multiple drones in collaboration. In some transportation tasks, two drones are required to lift the load together, which brings even more…
In recent years, consumer-grade UAVs have been widely adopted by first responders. In general, they are operated manually, which requires trained pilots, especially in unknown GNSS-denied environments and in the vicinity of structures.…
The quest for other habitable worlds and the search for life among them are major goals of modern astronomy. One way to make progress towards these goals is to obtain high-quality spectra of a large number of exoplanets over a broad range…
We discuss the in-flight autonomous assembly as the means to build advanced planetary science payloads to explore the outer regions of the solar system. These payloads are robotically constructed from modular parts delivered by a group of…
We present a design, model, and control for a novel jumping-flying robot that is called PogoDrone. The robot is composed of a quadrotor with a passive mechanism for jumping. The robot can continuously jump in place or fly like a normal…
There is an opportunity to advance both solar system and extrasolar planetary studies that does not require the construction of new telescopes or new missions but better use and access to inter-disciplinary data sets. This approach…
This paper discusses the conceptual design and proof-of-concept flight demonstration of a novel variable pitch quadrotor biplane Unmanned Aerial Vehicle concept for payload delivery. The proposed design combines vertical takeoff and landing…
The main motivation of this work is to propose a simulation approach for a specific task within the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) field, i.e., the visual detection and tracking of arbitrary moving objects. In particular, it is described…
Mobility management is the key feature of cellular networks. When integrating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into cellular networks, their cell association needs to be carefully managed for coexistence with other cellular users. UAVs move…
Terrestrial-aerial bimodal vehicles, which integrate the high mobility of aerial robots with the long endurance of ground robots, offer significant potential for autonomous exploration. Given the inherent energy and time constraints in…
This brief review focuses on methods and applications of modeling exoplanetary atmospheres. We discuss various kinds of state of the art self-consistent and retrieval models in 1D and multi-D with a focus on open questions and short- and…