Related papers: Quad-rotor Flight Simulation in Realistic Atmosphe…
Quadcopters are increasingly used for applications ranging from hobby to industrial products and services. This paper serves as a tutorial on the design, simulation, implementation, and experimental outdoor testing of digital quadcopter…
Despite substantial growth in wind energy technology in recent decades, aerodynamic modeling of wind turbines relies on momentum models derived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which are well-known to break down under flow regimes…
We develop an effective computer model to simulate sensing environments that consist of natural trees. The simulated environments are random and contain full geometry of the tree foliage. While this simulated model can be used as a general…
To properly simulate and implement a quadcopter flight control for intended load and flight conditions, the quadcopter model must have parameters on various relationships including propeller thrust-torque, thrust-PWM, and thrust--angular…
Robust adaptive control methods are essential for maintaining quadcopter performance under external disturbances and model uncertainties. However, fragmented evaluations across tasks, simulators, and implementations hinder systematic…
Hybrid unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) integrate the efficient forward flight of fixed-wing and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities of multicopter UAVs. This paper presents the modeling, control and simulation of a new type of…
This paper investigates optimal takeoff trajectory planning for a quadrotor modeled with vertical-plane rigid body dynamics in an uncertain, one-dimensional wind-field. The wind-field varies horizontally and propagates across an operating…
This paper presents a framework for controlled emergency landing of a quadcopter, experiencing a rotor failure, away from sensitive areas. A complete mathematical model capturing the dynamics of the system is presented that takes the…
Simulators play a critical role in aerial robotics both in and out of the classroom. We present RotorPy, a simulation environment written entirely in Python intentionally designed to be a lightweight and accessible tool for robotics…
Quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles have a limited quantity of embedded energy. To preserve and guaranty the success of the UAV mission, we should manage energy consumption during the mission. In this study we introduce an optimization…
Autonomous unpowered flight is a challenge for control and guidance systems: all the energy the aircraft might use during flight has to be harvested directly from the atmosphere. We investigate the design of an algorithm that optimizes the…
Quadcopters have been studied for decades thanks to their maneuverability and capability of operating in a variety of circumstances. However, quadcopters suffer from dynamical nonlinearity, actuator saturation, as well as sensor noise that…
In this report, we present the theory on aerodynamics of quadrotors using the well established momentum and blade element theories. From a robotics perspective, the theoretical development of the models for thrust and horizontal forces and…
We present a dynamic path planning algorithm to navigate an amphibious rotor craft through a concave time-invariant obstacle field while attempting to minimize energy usage. We create a nonlinear quaternion state model that represents the…
We investigate the dynamic response of flexible aircraft in low-altitude atmospheric turbulence. To this end, three turbulence models of increasing fidelity, namely, the one-dimensional von K{\'a}rm{\'a}n model, the two-dimensional Kaimal…
Aerial manipulation (AM) expands UAV capabilities beyond passive observation to contact-based operations at high altitudes and in otherwise inaccessible environments. Although recent advances show promise, most AM systems are developed in…
In past years, several studies have proposed new methods and applications for urban wind simulations. In this article, we present a fast and automatic methodology for reconstructing airflows within urban environments using LiDAR and…
In this work, we utilize discrete geometric mechanics to derive a 2nd-order variational integrator so as to simulate rigid body dynamics. The developed integrator is to simulate the motion of a free rigid body and a quad-rotor. We…
Wind affects the stability and maneuverability of UAVs, which can be particularly dangerous when operating near obstacles or each other. In order to test the effectiveness of formation control laws and the impact of windy environments on…
Quadrotors are highly nonlinear dynamical systems that require carefully tuned controllers to be pushed to their physical limits. Recently, learning-based control policies have been proposed for quadrotors, as they would potentially allow…