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Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) research faces challenges with safety, scalability, costs, and ecological impact when conducting hardware testing. High-fidelity simulators offer a vital solution by replicating real-world conditions to enable…
The recent development of novel aerial vehicles capable of physically interacting with the environment leads to new applications such as contact-based inspection. These tasks require the robotic system to exchange forces with…
This paper introduces a novel compliant mechanism combining lightweight and energy dissipation for aerial physical interaction. Weighting 400~g at take-off, the mechanism is actuated in the forward body direction, enabling precise position…
The primary aim of this study is to enhance the accuracy of our aerodynamic Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) model to support the controlled tracking of 3D flight trajectories by Aerobat, which is a dynamic morphing winged drone. Building…
We investigate the effect of wing twist flexibility on lift and efficiency of a flapping-wing micro air vehicle capable of liftoff. Wings used previously were chosen to be fully rigid due to modeling and fabrication constraints. However,…
Morphology of a robot design is important to its ability to achieve a stated goal and therefore applying machine learning approaches that incorporate morphology in the design space can provide scope for significant advantage. Our study is…
Quadrotors have demonstrated remarkable versatility, yet their full aerobatic potential remains largely untapped due to inherent underactuation and the complexity of aggressive maneuvers. Traditional approaches, separating trajectory…
Testing the aerodynamics of micro- and nano-UAVs without actually flying is highly challenging. To address this issue, we introduce Open Gimbal, a specially designed 3 Degrees of Freedom platform that caters to the unique requirements of…
The growing field of aerial manipulation often relies on fully actuated or omnidirectional micro aerial vehicles (OMAVs) which can apply arbitrary forces and torques while in contact with the environment. Control methods are usually based…
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…
Flying animals, such as bats, fly through their fluidic environment as they create air jets and form wake structures downstream of their flight path. Bats, in particular, dynamically morph their highly flexible and dexterous armwing to…
We study experimentally a four-winged flapping flyer with chord-wise flexible wings in a self-propelled setup. For a given physical configuration of the flyer (i.e. fixed distance between the forewing and hindwing pairs and fixed wing…
We introduce FalconWing, an ultra-light (150 g) indoor fixed-wing UAV platform for vision-based autonomy. Controlled indoor environment enables year-round repeatable UAV experiment but imposes strict weight and maneuverability limits on the…
Many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can remain aerodynamically flyable after sustaining structural or control surface damage, yet insufficient robustness in conventional autopilots often leads to mission failure. This paper proposes a…
We present a multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle control (UAV) and estimation system for supporting replicable research through realistic simulations and real-world experiments. We propose a unique multi-frame localization paradigm for…
A motion-based control interface promises flexible robot operations in dangerous environments by combining user intuitions with the robot's motor capabilities. However, designing a motion interface for non-humanoid robots, such as…
The natural wind environment that volant insects encounter is unsteady and highly complex, posing significant flight control and stability challenges. Unsteady airflows can range from structured chains of discrete vortices shed in the wake…
Robust cooperative formation control is investigated in this paper for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles in close formation flight to save energy. A novel cooperative control method is developed. The concept of virtual structure is…
How to endow aerial robots with the ability to operate in close proximity remains an open problem. The core challenges lie in the propulsion system's dual-task requirement: generating manipulation forces while simultaneously counteracting…
This paper presents a simulation framework able of modeling the dynamics of a hanging tether with adjustable length, connecting a UAV to a UGV. The model incorporates the interaction between the UAV, UGV, and a winch, allowing for dynamic…