Related papers: First free-flight flow visualisation of a flapping…
This research aims at developing path and motion planning algorithms for a tethered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to visually assist a teleoperated primary robot in unstructured or confined environments. The emerging state of the practice…
Soft-actuated insect-scale micro aerial vehicles (IMAVs) pose unique challenges for designing robust and computationally efficient controllers. At the millimeter scale, fast robot dynamics ($\sim$ms), together with system delay, model…
A ground-to-air free-space optical link is studied for a hovering unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) having multiple rotors. For this UAV, a four-quadrant array of photodetectors is used at the optical receiver to alleviate the adverse effect of…
The concept of aerial-aquatic robots has emerged as an innovative solution that can operate both in the air and underwater. Previous research on the design of such robots has been mainly focused on mature technologies such as fixed-wing and…
This paper describes dynamic system identification, and full control of a cost-effective vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) multi-rotor micro-aerial vehicle (MAV) --- DJI Matrice 100. The dynamics of the vehicle and autopilot controllers…
Safe navigation of Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) requires not only obstacle-free flight paths according to a static environment map, but also the perception of and reaction to previously unknown and dynamic objects. This implies that the…
This work assesses the hydrodynamic efficiency of Underwater Unmanned Vehicles (UUVs) equipped with soft morphing wings compared to conventional rigid wings. Unlike rigid wings, deformable counterparts can alter their aerodynamic properties…
The paper discusses a novel vision-based estimation and control approach to enable fully autonomous tracking and landing of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on moving platforms without relying on…
This paper presents a comprehensive modeling and control framework for a low-cost multirotor hybrid aerial-aquatic vehicle (MHAUV) capable of seamless air-water transitions. A hybrid dynamics model is proposed to account for the distinct…
We develop a highly efficient numerical method to simulate small-amplitude flapping propulsion by a flexible wing in a nearly inviscid fluid. We allow the wing's elastic modulus and mass density to vary arbitrarily, with an eye towards…
Drone racing is becoming a popular e-sport all over the world, and beating the best human drone race pilots has quickly become a new major challenge for artificial intelligence and robotics. In this paper, we propose a strategy for…
Inspired by flight characteristics captured from live Monarch butterflies, an optimal control problem is presented while accounting the effects of low-frequency flapping and abdomen undulation. A flapping-wing aerial vehicle is modeled as…
The leading edge vortex (LEV) is one of the most important lift augmentation mechanisms in flapping wing aerodynamics. We propose a methodology that aims to provide a quantitative description of the LEV. The first step of the method…
This research endeavors to design the perching maneuver and control in ornithopter robots. By analyzing the dynamic interplay between the robot's flight dynamics, feedback loops, and the environmental constraints, we aim to advance our…
Thermal soaring saves much energy, but flying large distances in this form represents a great challenge for birds, people and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The solution is to make use of so-called thermals, which are localized, warmer…
Despite significant advancements in the research of aquatic-aerial robots, existing configurations struggle to efficiently perform underwater, surface, and aerial movement simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a novel multimodal surfing…
Morphing aerial robots have the potential to transform autonomous flight, enabling navigation through cluttered environments, perching, and seamless transitions between aerial and terrestrial locomotion. Yet mid-flight reconfiguration…
Stretching and retracting wingspan has been widely observed in the flight of birds and bats, and its effects on the aerodynamic performance particularly lift generation are intriguing. The rectangular flat-plate flapping wing with a…
Using a flapping robot in a wind tunnel, we show that flapping faster amplifies existing longitudinal static stability (focusing on the pitch stiffness) and can even make an unstable flier stable. We show that stability for a flapper is not…
Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) have become the de facto vehicle for remote operations involving oceanography, inspection, and monitoring tasks. These vehicles operate in different and often challenging environments; hence, the design…