Related papers: SLAP: Slapband-based Autonomous Perching Drone wit…
Aerial mapping systems are important for many surveying applications (e.g., industrial inspection or agricultural monitoring). Aerial platforms that can fly GPS-guided preplanned missions semi-autonomously are already widely available but…
Autonomous Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) gained tremendous attention in recent years. Autonomous flight in indoor requires a dense depth map for navigable space detection which is the fundamental component for autonomous navigation. In this…
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are crucial in Search and Rescue (SAR) missions due to their ability to monitor vast maritime areas. However, small objects often remain difficult to detect from high altitudes due to low object-to-background…
Drones will play an essential role in human-machine teaming in future search and rescue (SAR) missions. We present a first prototype that finds people fully autonomously in densely occluded forests. In the course of 17 field experiments…
Autonomous landing of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) in unknown, dynamic environments poses significant safety challenges, particularly near people and infrastructure, as UAVs transition to routine urban and rural operations. Existing…
Aerial robots show significant potential for forest canopy research and environmental monitoring by providing data collection capabilities at high spatial and temporal resolutions. However, limited flight endurance hinders their…
Dynamic soaring is a flying technique to exploit the energy available in wind shear layers, enabling potentially unlimited flight without the need for internal energy sources. We propose a framework for autonomous dynamic soaring with a…
Survivors stranded during floods tend to seek refuge on dry land. It is important to search for these survivors and help them reach safety as quickly as possible. The terrain in such situations however, is heavily damaged and restricts the…
Fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are one of the most commonly used platforms for the burgeoning Low-altitude Economy (LAE) and Urban Air Mobility (UAM), due to their long endurance and high-speed capabilities. Classical obstacle…
Contrary to the stunning feats observed in birds of prey, aerial manipulation and grasping with flying robots still lack versatility and agility. Conventional approaches using rigid manipulators require precise positioning and are subject…
The next ubiquitous computing platform, following personal computers and smartphones, is poised to be inherently autonomous, encompassing technologies like drones, robots, and self-driving cars. Ensuring reliability for these autonomous…
Uncontrolled emissions of gases from industrial accidents and disasters result in huge loss of life and property. Such extreme events require a quick and reliable survey of the site for effective rescue strategy planning. To achieve these…
Current UAVs capable of perching require added structure and mechanisms to accomplish this. These take the form of hooks, claws, needles, etc which add weight and usually drag. We propose in this paper the dual use of structures already on…
Quadrotors with the ability to perch on moving inclined surfaces can save energy and extend their travel distance by leveraging ground vehicles. Achieving dynamic perching places high demands on the performance of trajectory planning and…
We present an autonomous aerial surveillance platform, Veg, designed as a fault-tolerant quadcopter system that integrates visual SLAM for GPS-independent navigation, advanced control architecture for dynamic stability, and embedded vision…
Over the past decades, quadcopters have been investigated, due to their mobility and flexibility to operate in a wide range of environments. They have been used in various areas, including surveillance and monitoring. During a mission,…
A key requirement in robotics is the ability to simultaneously self-localize and map a previously unknown environment, relying primarily on onboard sensing and computation. Achieving fully onboard accurate simultaneous localization and…
In the evolving era of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), the emphasis has moved from mere data collection to strategically obtaining timely and relevant data within the Internet of Drones (IoDs) ecosystem. However, the unpredictable…
In the area of multi-drone systems, navigating through dynamic environments from start to goal while providing collision-free trajectory and efficient path planning is a significant challenge. To solve this problem, we propose a novel…
Autonomous exploration of unknown space is an essential component for the deployment of mobile robots in the real world. Safe navigation is crucial for all robotics applications and requires accurate and consistent maps of the robot's…