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Among ship maneuvers, berthing/unberthing maneuvers are one of the most challenging and stressful phases for captains. Concerning burden reduction on ship operators and preventing accidents, several researches have been conducted on…
This paper presents a method for incorporating control analysis into design optimization for highly-maneuverable aircraft. By studying reachable sets for aircraft dynamics, we ensure that the optimizer will take the aircraft's controlled…
Birds have a remarkable ability to perform complex maneuvers at post-stall angles of attack. The passive deployment of self-actuating covert feathers in response to unsteady flow separation while performing such maneuvers provides a passive…
This paper presents a three-dimensional (3D) energy-optimal path-following control design for autonomous underwater vehicles subject to ocean currents. The proposed approach has a two-stage control architecture consisting of the setpoint…
Achieving both agile maneuverability and high energy efficiency in aerial robots, particularly in dynamic wind environments, remains challenging. Conventional thruster-powered systems offer agility but suffer from high energy consumption,…
Energy harvesting based on tethered kites benefits from exploiting higher wind speeds at higher altitudes. The setup considered in this paper is based on a pumping cycle. It generates energy by winching out at high tether forces, driving an…
Autonomous exploration is a widely studied fundamental application in the field of quadrotors, which requires them to automatically explore unknown space to obtain complete information about the environment. The frontier-based method, which…
Rapidly generating an optimal chasing motion of a drone to follow a dynamic target among obstacles is challenging due to numerical issues rising from multiple conflicting objectives and non-convex constraints. This study proposes to resolve…
Fast, autonomous flight in unstructured, cluttered environments such as forests is challenging because it requires the robot to compute new plans in realtime on a computationally-constrained platform. In this paper, we enable this…
Catching high-speed targets in the flight is a complex and typical highly dynamic task. In this paper, we propose Catch Planner, a planning-with-decision scheme for catching. For sequential decision making, we propose a policy search method…
In this paper, we deal with the power regulation of tethered-wing systems and demonstrate advantages of variable-pitch control in mitigating the dynamic mechanical loads and power fluctuations. The proposed scheme is based on a strategy…
This research endeavors to design the perching maneuver and control in ornithopter robots. By analyzing the dynamic interplay between the robot's flight dynamics, feedback loops, and the environmental constraints, we aim to advance our…
We present an optimal hybrid control approach to the problem of stochastic route planning for sailing boats, especially in short course fleet races, in which minimum average time is an effective performance index. We show that the hybrid…
We experimentally study the aeroelastic instability boundaries and three-dimensional vortex dynamics of pitching swept wings, with the sweep angle ranging from 0 to 25 degrees. The structural dynamics of the wings are simulated using a…
There is evidence that flying animals such as pigeons, goshawks, and bats use optical flow sensing to enable high-speed flight through forest clutter. This paper discusses the elements of a theory of controlled flight through obstacle…
This work develops a unified optimal control framework for a Quadrotor Biplane tailsitter UAV capable of operating seamlessly across hover, transition, and cruise flight regimes. Although the tailsitter configuration enables mechanically…
A study on filtering aspects of airborne wind energy generators is presented. This class of renewable energy systems aims to convert the aerodynamic forces generated by tethered wings, flying in closed paths transverse to the wind flow,…
In this work, we evaluate the use of aerial drone hover constraints in a multisensor fusion of ground robot and drone data to improve the localization performance of a drone. In particular, we build upon our prior work on cooperative…
When navigating complex environments, animals often combine multiple strategies to mitigate the effects of external disturbances. These modalities often correspond to different sources of information, leading to speed-accuracy trade-offs.…
Pursuing a drifting target in a turbulent flow is an extremely difficult task whenever the searcher has limited propulsion and maneuvering capabilities. Even in the case when the relative distance between pursuer and target stays below the…