Vertical Take Off and Landing

Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) research focuses on developing autonomous flight capabilities for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), particularly for applications like urban air mobility and maritime operations. Current research emphasizes robust control algorithms, including model predictive control and reinforcement learning (e.g., Proximal Policy Optimization), often coupled with advanced state estimation techniques like the Invariant Extended Kalman Filter and vision-aided inertial navigation systems to handle challenging environments and actuator failures. These advancements are crucial for improving the safety, efficiency, and reliability of VTOL UAVs, impacting fields ranging from package delivery to search and rescue.