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This paper addresses the modeling and attitude control of jumping quadrupeds in low-gravity environments. First, a convex decomposition procedure is presented to generate high-accuracy and low-cost collision geometries for quadrupeds…
The autonomous operation of flexible-wing aircraft is technically challenging and has never been presented within literature. The lack of an exact modeling framework is due to the complex nonlinear aerodynamic relationships governed by the…
This paper presents the mathematical modeling, controller design, and flight-testing of an over-actuated Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) tiltwing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Based on simplified aerodynamics and first-principles, a…
In this paper the problem of guidance formulation for autonomous soft landing of unmanned aerial vehicles on stationary, moving, or accelerating / maneuvering ground vehicles at desired approach angles in both azimuth and elevation is…
A new framework is developed for control of constrained nonlinear systems with structured parametric uncertainties. Forward invariance of a safe set is achieved through online parameter adaptation and data-driven model estimation. The new…
We present a fully autonomous self-recharging drone system capable of long-duration sustained operations near powerlines. The drone is equipped with a robust onboard perception and navigation system that enables it to locate powerlines and…
Attitude control of a novel regional truss-braced wing aircraft with low stability characteristics is addressed in this paper using Reinforcement Learning (RL). In recent years, RL has been increasingly employed in challenging applications,…
Over the past few decades, continuous quaternion-based attitude control has been proven highly effective for driving rotational systems that can be modeled as rigid bodies, such as satellites and drones. However, methods rooted in this…
The controller is one of the most important modules in the autonomous driving pipeline, ensuring the vehicle reaches its desired position. In this work, a reinforcement learning based lateral control approach, despite the imperfections in…
Planning and control for autonomous vehicles usually are hierarchical separated. However, increasing performance demands and operating in highly dynamic environments requires an frequent re-evaluation of the planning and tight integration…
Reference tracking systems involve a plant that is stabilized by a local feedback controller and a command center that indicates the reference set-point the plant should follow. Typically, these systems are subject to limitations such as…
In this paper, two nonlinear methods for stabilizing the orientation of a Four-Wheel Independent Drive and Steering (4WIDS) robot while in the air are analyzed, implemented in simulation, and compared. AGRO (the Agile Ground Robot) is a…
In this paper we address the control problem of aerial cable suspended load transportation, using multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). First, the dynamical model of the coupled system is obtained using the Newton-Euler formalism, for…
In this paper, a reconfigurable control scheme for a generalized class of multicopters is presented to overcome single or multiple rotor failures. In a multicopter, the rotor failure heavily affects its dynamics and thus its…
This paper considers the controllability analysis problem for a class of multirotor systems subject to rotor failure/wear. It is shown that classical controllability theories of linear systems are not sufficient to test the controllability…
This paper presents a model-based, adaptive, nonlinear controller for the bicopter stabilization and trajectory-tracking problem. The nonlinear controller is designed using the backstepping technique. Due to the non-invertibility of the…
With the introduction of the laterally bounded forces, the tilt-rotor gains more flexibility in the controller design. Typical feedback linearization methods utilize all the inputs in controlling this vehicle; the magnitudes as well as the…
This paper introduces a landing guidance strategy for reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) using a model predictive approach based on sequential convex programming (SCP). The proposed approach devises two distinct optimal control problems…
We propose a method for performing automatic docking of a small autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) by interconnecting an optimization-based trajectory planner with a dynamic positioning (DP) controller for trajectory tracking. The trajectory…
Attitude stabilization of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in uncertain environments presents significant challenges due to nonlinear dynamics, parameter variations, and sensor limitations. This paper presents a comparative study of…