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Recent research has enabled fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to maneuver in constrained spaces through the use of direct nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC). However, this approach has been limited to a priori known maps and…
Autonomous landing on a moving platform presents unique challenges for multirotor vehicles, including the need to accurately localize the platform, fast trajectory planning, and precise/robust control. Previous works studied this problem…
This paper presents a data-driven optimal control policy for a micro flapping wing unmanned aerial vehicle. First, a set of optimal trajectories are computed off-line based on a geometric formulation of dynamics that captures the nonlinear…
Designing provably safe control is a core problem in trustworthy autonomy. However, most prior work in this regard assumes either that the system dynamics are known or deterministic, or that the state and action space are finite,…
A tethered multirotor autogyro can function as an unmanned aerial vehicle for energy-efficient and prolonged deployment, as it uses the available wind energy to sustain flight. This article presents an adaptive altitude control strategy for…
Obstacle avoidance for small unmanned aircraft is vital for the safety of future urban air mobility (UAM) and Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM). There are many techniques for real-time robust drone guidance, but many…
Adaptive control has focused on online control of dynamic systems in the presence of parametric uncertainties, with solutions guaranteeing stability and control performance. Safety, a related property to stability, is becoming increasingly…
Autonomous drone racing requires powerful perception, planning, and control and has become a benchmark and test field for autonomous, agile flight. Existing work usually assumes static race tracks with known maps, which enables offline…
Wing flexibility governs the flying performance of flapping wing flyers. Here, we use a self-propelled flapping-wing model mounted on a ``merry go round'' to investigate the effect of wing compliance on the propulsive efficiency of the…
The aim of this work is to study the dynamics and stability of soft shape-morphing configurations and specifically the modes of interaction between the front and rear airfoil segments. Initially we present several steady-state solutions,…
Take-off and landing are the most important maneuvers for an aircraft's flight. Deployment for small fixed-wing aircraft is usually made by hand but when payload increases, take-off, and landing maneuvers are then performed on a runway…
Sliding mode control of a launch vehicle during its atmospheric flight phase is studied in the presence of unmatched disturbances. Linear time-varying dynamics of the aerospace vehicle is converted into a systematic formula and then dynamic…
This thesis presents a solution that enables aerial robots to reason about surrounding wind flow fields in real time using on board sensors and embedded flight hardware. The core novelty of this research is the fusion of range measurements…
This paper presents a systematic approach for designing robust linear proportional-integral (PI) servo-controllers that effectively manage control input and output constraints in flight control systems. The control design leverages the…
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,…
Being motivated by ceiling inspection applications via unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which require close proximity flight to surfaces, a systematic control approach enabling safe and accurate close proximity flight is proposed in this…
Insects control unsteady aerodynamic forces on flapping wings to navigate complex environments. While understanding these forces is vital for biology, physics, and engineering, existing evaluation methods face trade-offs: high-fidelity…
The widespread use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by the military, commercial companies, and academia continues to push research for autonomous vehicle navigation, particularly in varying environmental conditions and…
The development of control techniques to maintain vehicle stability under possible loss-of-control scenarios is essential to the safe deployment of autonomous ground vehicles in public scenarios. In this paper, we propose a tube-based…
Avian-informed drones feature morphing wing and tail surfaces, enhancing agility and adaptability in flight. Despite their large potential, realising their full capabilities remains challenging due to the lack of generalized control…