Aerial Robotics

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Overview

Aerial robotics develops flying machines—from multirotors and fixed-wing aircraft to flapping-wing and hybrid robots—and the methods that let them sense, move, and interact with the world. Work combines onboard perception and state estimation with model-based planning and control, including model predictive control, visual servoing, and robust control; reinforcement learning and vision-language-action models are increasingly used for navigation, tracking, and manipulation. Researchers also study cooperative swarms, aerial transport, landing, and contact tasks, evaluating systems in simulation and benchmarks as well as on real robots with limited power, computing, and sensing. A central challenge is making learning-based autonomy generalize from simulation to changing real conditions while preserving safety, reliability, and real-time performance.

Latest papers

CardsList

343 papers38 papers in the last four weeks, down 24% on the four weeks before. 0.2% of all new papers.

  1. Sensitivity-Based Tube NMPC for Cooperative Aerial Structures Under Parametric Uncertainty

    Apr 28, 2026Giuseppe Silano, Quentin Sablé, Marco Tognon +2Aerial RoboticsNonlinear MPC

    Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico S.p.A., Milan, Italy, and Czech Technical University, Prague, Czechia · University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands · University of Rennes, CNRS, Inria, IRISA, 35042, France +2

  2. LiteVLA-H: Dual-Rate Vision-Language-Action Inference for Onboard Aerial Guidance and Semantic Perception

    Apr 27, 2026Justin williams, Kishor Datta Gupta, Roy George +1Aerial RoboticsEfficient VLM Inference

  3. A Lightweight Toggleable Adhesion Prototype for Multirotor UAV Landing on Tilting Platforms

    Apr 24, 2026Teighin Nordholt, Melissa GreeffAerial RoboticsUAV Landing on Moving Platforms

    Robora Lab (www.roboralab.com), Queen’s University · affiliated with Ingenuity Labs Research Institute

  4. Characterizing pitch and roll torque coupling in insect-sized flapping-wing robots using a microfabricated gimbal

    Apr 23, 2026Aaron Weber, Daksh Dhingra, Sawyer B. FullerAerial Robotics

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, USA · Humanoid, Boston, USA · Department of Mechanical Engineering and Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science, University of Washington, Seattle, USA

  5. A Case Study in Recovery of Drones using Discrete-Event Systems

    Apr 23, 2026Liam P. Burns, Dayse M. Cavalcanti, Felipe G. Cabral +4Dynamical SystemsAerial Robotics

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Ingenuity Labs Research Institute, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada · Automation and Systems Engineering Program, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, 88.040-900, Brazil

  6. Impact-Aware Model Predictive Control for UAV Landing on a Heaving Platform

    Apr 22, 2026Jess Stephenson, Melissa GreeffAerial RoboticsUAV Landing on Moving Platforms

    Robora Lab, Ingenuity Labs Research Institute, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

  7. Scheduling Analysis of UAV Flight Control Workloads on PREEMPT_RT Linux Using a Raspberry Pi 5

    Apr 21, 2026Luiz Giacomossi, Håkan Forsberg, Ivan Tomasic +2Aerial RoboticsReal-Time Scheduling

    Mälardalen University Västerås, Sweden · ReTiS Lab, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Pisa, Italy

  8. AeroBridge-TTA: Test-Time Adaptive Language-Conditioned Control for UAVs

    Apr 21, 2026Lingxue LyuRobotic ControlAerial Robotics

    University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

  9. AI-Enabled Image-Based Hybrid Vision/Force Control of Tendon-Driven Aerial Continuum Manipulators

    Apr 21, 2026Shayan Sepahvand, Farrokh Janabi-Sharifi, Farhad AghiliRobotic ControlAerial Robotics

    Department of Mechanical, Industrial, and Mechatronics Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada · Department of Mechanical, Industrial, and Aerospace Engineering (MIAE), Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8, Canada

  10. Task-Adaptive Admittance Control for Human-Quadrotor Cooperative Load Transportation with Dynamic Cable-Length Regulation

    Apr 20, 2026Shuai Li, Ton T. H. Duong, Damiano ZanottoAerial RoboticsAdmittance Control

    Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA

  11. Thrust Regulation Through Wing Linkage Modulation on the Aerobat Platform: Piezoelectric Slip-Stick Actuated Regulator Development

    Apr 20, 2026Luca CiampagliaAerial RoboticsMechanism Design

    Northeastern University

  12. Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Enhanced Search and Rescue of Drowning Swimmers: Image-Based Localization and Mission Simulation

    Apr 20, 2026Sascha Emanuel Zell, Toni Schneidereit, Armin Fügenschuh +1Aerial RoboticsObject Detection

    Chair of Engineering Mathematics and Numerical Optimization Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus–Senftenberg Platz der Deutschen Einheit 1 03046 Cottbus, Germany · Chair of Applied Mathematics Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus–Senftenberg Platz der Deutschen Einheit 1 03046 Cottbus, Germany

  13. Neural Network-Based Adaptive Event-Triggered Control for Dual-Arm Unmanned Aerial Manipulator Systems

    Apr 18, 2026Yang Wang, Hai Yu, Wei He +3Robot Trajectory TrackingAerial Robotics

    Institute of Robotics and Automatic Information System, College of Artificial Intelligence, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robotics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China. · Institute of Intelligence Technology and Robotic Systems, Shenzhen Research Institute of Nankai University, Shenzhen 518083, China.

  14. Energy-based Regularization for Learning Residual Dynamics in Neural MPC for Omnidirectional Aerial Robots

    Apr 16, 2026Johannes Kübel, Henrik Krauss, Jinjie Li +1Aerial RoboticsResidual Dynamics Learning

    DRAGON Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan · Department of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan

  15. See&Say: Vision Language Guided Safe Zone Detection for Autonomous Package Delivery Drones

    Apr 14, 2026Mahyar Ghazanfari, Peng WeiRobot SafetyAerial Robotics

    George Washington University

  16. Soft Electroadhesive Feet for Micro Aerial Robots Perching on Smooth and Curved Surfaces

    Apr 10, 2026Chen Liu, Sonu Feroz, Ketao ZhangAerial RoboticsSoft Robotics

    Centre for Advanced Robotics at Queen Mary University of London, UK

  17. AgiPIX: Bridging Simulation and Reality in Indoor Aerial Inspection

    Apr 9, 2026Sasanka Kuruppu Arachchige, Juan Jose Garcia, Changda Tian +4Aerial RoboticsRobotic Inspection

    Computing Sciences department at Tampere University, Finland · U2IS at ENSTA, Paris · Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, Greece.

  18. MotionScape: A Motion-Stratified UAV Video Benchmark for World Modeling and Future Video Generation

    Apr 9, 2026Zile Guo, Zhan Chen, Xiaoxuan Liu +5Aerial RoboticsVideo Generation

    Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences · Key Laboratory of Target Cognition and Application Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences · School of Electronic, Electrical and Communication Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences +1

  19. Bird-Inspired Spatial Flapping Wing Mechanism via Coupled Linkages with Single Actuator

    Apr 9, 2026Daniel Huczala, Sun-Pill Jung, Frank C. ParkMechanism DesignAerial Robotics

    Robotics Laboratory, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea · Biorobotics Laboratory, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea

  20. eVTOL Aircraft Energy Overhead Estimation under Conflict Resolution in High-Density Airspaces

    Apr 7, 2026Alex Zongo, Peng WeiAir Traffic ManagementAerial Robotics

    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20052, USA

  21. Force Polytope-Based Cant-Angle Selection for Tilting Hexarotor UAVs

    Apr 7, 2026Alberto Piccina, Massimiliano Bertoni, Angelo Cenedese +1Aerial RoboticsAerial Manipulation

    Department of Management and Engineering, University of Padova, Vicenza, Italy · Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova, Padova, Italy · Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

  22. Dynamic Control Allocation for Dual-Tilt UAV Platforms

    Apr 7, 2026Marcello Sorge, Federico Ciresola, Giulia Michieletto +1Aerial RoboticsFeedback Control

    Department of Information Engineering University of Padova Padova, Italy · Department of Management and Engineering, University of Padova Padova, Italy · Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

  23. MARS-Dragonfly: Agile and Robust Flight Control of Modular Aerial Robot Systems

    Apr 7, 2026Rui Huang, Zhiqian Cai, Siyu Tang +6Aerial RoboticsModular Robotics

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117583, Singapore · Engineering Design and Innovation Centre, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117583, Singapore

  24. GaussFly: Contrastive Reinforcement Learning for Visuomotor Policies in 3D Gaussian Fields

    Apr 6, 2026Yuhang Zhang, Mingsheng Li, Yujing Shang +4Visuomotor Policy LearningVisual RL

    School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore · School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore · College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119077, Singapore +1

  25. EDFNet: Early Fusion of Edge and Depth for Thin-Obstacle Segmentation in UAV Navigation

    Apr 6, 2026Negar FathiThin-Structure SegmentationMultimodal Semantic Segmentation

    University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

  26. Learning Families of Fixed-Wing Aircraft Control Policies with Hypernetwork-Conditioned Reinforcement Learning

    Apr 3, 2026Dennis Marquis, Mazen FarhoodFault-Tolerant ControlRobust RL

    Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA

  27. UAV-Track VLA: Embodied Aerial Tracking via Vision-Language-Action Models

    Apr 2, 2026Qiyao Zhang, Shuhua Zheng, Jianli Sun +6Visual Object TrackingVision-Language-Action Models

    Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China · Flying Intelligence Team (Virtual Research Community) · Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China +4

  28. Real Time Local Wind Inference for Robust Autonomous Navigation

    Apr 1, 2026Spencer FolkAerial RoboticsRobot Navigation

    Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania

  29. Design and Aerodynamic Modeling of MetaMorpher: A Hybrid Rotary andFixed-Wing Morphing UAV

    Mar 31, 2026Anja Bosak, Dorian Erić, Ana Milas +1Aerial RoboticsDynamical Systems

    All authors are with the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, LARICS Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems, Unska 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

  30. A Self-Rotating Tri-Rotor UAV for Field of View Expansion and Autonomous Flight

    Mar 30, 2026Xiaobin Zhou, Zihao Zheng, Aoxu Jin +2Aerial RoboticsUAV Navigation

    School of Robotics and Automation, Nanjing University, Suzhou, 215163, China.