Related papers: Fly Out The Window: Exploiting Discrete-Time Flatn…
Nonlinear systems of affine control inputs overarch many sensor fusion instances. Analyzing whether a state variable in such a nonlinear system can be estimated (i.e., observability) informs better estimator design. Among the research on…
State estimation and control is a well-studied problem in conventional aerial vehicles such as multi-rotors. But multi-rotors, while versatile, are not suitable for all applications. Due to turbulent airflow from ground effects,…
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…
Although quadrotors, and aerial robots in general, are inherently active agents, their perceptual capabilities in literature so far have been mostly passive in nature. Researchers and practitioners today use traditional computer vision…
This paper extends our previous study on an explicit saturated control for a quadcopter, which ensures both constraint satisfaction and stability thanks to the linear representation of the system in the flat output space. The novelty here…
Dynamic/kinematic model is of great significance in decision and control of intelligent vehicles. However, due to the singularity of dynamic models at low speed, kinematic models have been the only choice under many driving scenarios. This…
Reaching fast and autonomous flight requires computationally efficient and robust algorithms. To this end, we train Guidance & Control Networks to approximate optimal control policies ranging from energy-optimal to time-optimal flight. We…
In the evolving landscape of high-speed agile quadrotor flight, achieving precise trajectory tracking at the platform's operational limits is paramount. Controllers must handle actuator constraints, exhibit robustness to disturbances, and…
Given the evolving application scenarios of current fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), it is necessary for UAVs to possess agile and rapid 3-dimensional flight capabilities. Typically, the trajectory of a tail-sitter is generated…
We study distributed control for a network of nonlinear, differentially flat subsystems subject to dynamic coupling. Although differential flatness simplifies planning and control for isolated subsystems, the presence of coupling can…
This paper presents a solution for the state estimation and control problems for a class of unconventional vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAVs operating in forward-flight conditions. A tightly-coupled state estimation approach is used…
In trajectory planning and control design for unmanned air vehicles, highly simplified models are typically used to represent the vehicle dynamics and the operating environment. The goal of this work is to perform real-time, but realistic…
This paper presents, for the first time, the soft planar vertical take-off and landing (Soft-PVTOL) aircraft. This concept captures the soft aerial vehicle's fundamental dynamics with a minimum number of states and inputs but retains the…
Flatness of discrete-time systems can be characterized by two simple properties. There exists a map, a submersion, from the flat coordinates and their forward shifts to the state and the input of the discrete-time system, such that the…
This paper presents the design, development, and application of a novel space simulation environment for rapidly prototyping and testing flight software for distributed space systems. The environment combines the flexibility, determinism,…
This work provides a framework for nonlinear model-free control of systems with unknown input-output dynamics, but outputs that can be controlled by the inputs. This framework leads to real-time control of the system such that a feasible…
Automatic optimization of robotic behavior has been the long-standing goal of Evolutionary Robotics. Allowing the problem at hand to be solved by automation often leads to novel approaches and new insights. A common problem encountered with…
Unmanned surface vessels (USVs) are widely used in ocean exploration and environmental protection fields. To ensure that USV can successfully perform its mission, trajectory planning and motion tracking are the two most critical…
We investigate the problem of data-driven, on-the-fly control of systems with unknown nonlinear dynamics where data from only a single finite-horizon trajectory and possibly side information on the dynamics are available. Such side…
Agile quadrotor flight relies on rapidly planning and accurately tracking time-optimal trajectories, a technology critical to their application in the wild. However, the computational burden of computing time-optimal trajectories based on…