Quadrotor Control

Ask about this topic

Overview

Quadrotor control concerns keeping these agile aerial robots stable while tracking trajectories, avoiding obstacles, and handling disturbances, changing payloads, or physical interaction. Common approaches include geometric and PID controllers, incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion, and model predictive control, often paired with control barrier functions for safety; learning methods such as reinforcement learning and learned dynamics are increasingly used for agile flight and adaptation. Applications range from racing and cluttered navigation to inspection, landing, formation flight, and transporting or manipulating payloads. A central challenge is achieving reliable sim-to-real transfer and safe performance under uncertain dynamics while meeting the tight computation and sensing limits of small onboard platforms.

Latest papers

CardsList

127 papers19 papers in the last four weeks, down 14% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. Direct Rotor Thrust Sensing and Feedback Control for Disturbance Rejection of Multirotors Using Load-cells

    Jul 11, 2026Peter Böhm, Michael Brünig, Peyman Z. Moghadam +1Aerial RoboticsRobust Control

    University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia · School of EECS, University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia · CSIRO Robotics, DATA61, CSIRO, Australia +1

  2. MorphQuad: Morphable Quadrotor for Superhuman Maneuverability, Manipulation, and Resiliency

    Jul 2, 2026J. Diaz Peon Gonzalez Pacheco, J. Xu, A. Zhao +7Aerial RoboticsQuadrotor Control

    Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan.

  3. Learning Agile Intruder Interception using Differentiable Quadrotor Dynamics

    Jul 2, 2026Michael Anoruo, Xiaoyu Tian, Abhishek Rathod +5RL ControlRobot Policy Learning

    Carnegie Mellon University · Artificial Intelligence Integration Center

  4. Wind-Aware Reinforcement Learning Control of a Small Quadrotor Using Learned Onboard Wind Estimation in Simulated Atmospheric Turbulence

    Jul 1, 2026Abdullah Al Tasim, Wei SunRL ControlAerial Robotics

    University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019

  5. FastBridge: Closing the Model-Based Realization Gap in Safety Filters on 3D Gaussian Splatting for Fast Quadrotor Flight

    Jul 1, 2026Tscholl Dario, Nakka Yashwanth Kumar, Gunter BrianCollision Avoidance3D Gaussian Splatting

  6. Machine Learning-based Feedback Linearization Control of Quadrotor Subject to Unmodeled Dynamics

    Jun 30, 2026Amos Alwala, Gabriel da Silva Lima, Wallace Moreira BessaRobot Trajectory TrackingFeedback Control

    Smart Systems, Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Technology, University of Turku, 20520 Turku, Finland.

  7. Learning to Throw: Agile and Accurate Cable-Suspended Payload Delivery with a Quadrotor

    Jun 25, 2026Yifan Zhai, Elia Raimondi, Yunfan Ren +4RL for RoboticsRobotics Simulation

    Robotics and Perception Group, Department of Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland

  8. Layered Outer-Loop Control for Disturbance-Robust Multi-Waypoint UAV Arrival

    Jun 24, 2026Runfeng LingRobot NavigationUAV Navigation

    Runfeng Ling is with The University of Manchester, Manchester, U.K.

  9. SkyJEPA: Learning Long-Horizon World Models for Zero-Shot Sim-to-Real Control of Quadrotors

    Jun 22, 2026Pratyaksh Rao, Wancong Zhang, Randall Balestriero +2Latent Dynamics ModelingWorld Models

    University of California Berkeley, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA · New York University, New York, NY, USA · Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

  10. Decentralized Geometric Control for Cable-Suspended Payload Transport with Adaptive Mass Estimation

    Jun 20, 2026Hadi Hajieghrary, Benedikt Walter, Paul Schmitt +1Multi-Agent CoordinationQuadrotor Control

  11. Reinforcement Learning with Inner-loop Dynamics Estimator for Aerial Manipulation under Uncertainty

    Jun 15, 2026Shivansh Pratap Singh, Samaksh Ujjwal, Ishita Chaudhary +3Robot Dynamics IdentificationRL for Robotics

    International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad, India. · Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester, UK.

  12. Agile Fall Recovery for Quadrotors with Bidirectional Thrust via Reinforcement Learning

    Jun 15, 2026Anke Zhao, Yuhang Zhong, Kenghou Hoi +5Robot Failure RecoveryRobotic RL

    Institute of Cyber-Systems and Control, College of Control Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China · Differential Robotics, Hangzhou 311121, China

  13. Efficient Domain-Adaptive Policy Learning via Kernel Representation with Application to Quadrotor Control under Non-Stationary Disturbances

    Jun 11, 2026Hongyu Zhou, Mingtian Tan, Vasileios TzoumasQuadrotor ControlAdaptive Control

    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

  14. Embodiment-conditioned Generalist Control for Multirotor Aerial Robots

    Jun 9, 2026Orestis Konstantaropoulos, Welf Rehberg, Mihir Kulkarni +1RL for RoboticsAerial Robotics

    Department of Engineering Cybernetics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

  15. Planar-Sector LOS Guidance for Interception of Agile Targets with Lifting-Wing Quadcopters

    Jun 9, 2026Linkai Liu, Kun Yang, Han Zou +4Quadrotor ControlVision-Based Robot Control

    School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China. · Research and Development Center, China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, Beijing, China.

  16. MuJoCo-Drones-Gym: A GPU-Accelerated Multi-Drone Simulator for Control and Reinforcement Learning

    Jun 6, 2026Manan TayalAerial RoboticsRobotics Simulation

    TAU-Intelligence

  17. MAD: Mapping-Aware World Models for Agile Quadrotor Flight

    Jun 3, 2026Xinhong Zhang, Runqing Wang, Yunfan Ren +6Robot Policy LearningWorld Models for Robotics

    State Key Lab of Autonomous Intelligent Unmanned Systems, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China · Zhongguancun Academy, Beijing 100094, China · School of Computer Science and Technology, Tongji University +2

  18. PerchRL: Vision-Based Agile Perching on Inclined Platforms under Rapid and Irregular Motion

    Jun 2, 2026Zihong Lu, Zongzhuo Liu, Huaxu Li +5RL for RoboticsAerial Robotics

    1SUSTech · 2HITSZ · 3PCL +1

  19. Network Distributed Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Consensus Control of Quadcopters

    Jun 1, 2026Youssef Mahran, Zeyad Gamal, Aamir Ahmad +1Multi-Agent ControlQuadrotor Control

    Mechatronics Engineering Department, German University in Cairo (GUC), Egypt · Institute of Flight Mechanics and Control (IFR), Head of Flight Robotics, University of Stuttgart, Germany · Faculty of EMS, Head of Mechatronics Engineering Department, German University in Cairo (GUC), Egypt

  20. Fixed-Time Dynamic Landing of Quadrotors using Adaptive Unscented Kalman Filtering and Nonlinear Model Predictive Control

    Jun 1, 2026Mohammadreza Izadi, Zeinab Shayan, Steven Waslander +1Kalman FilteringNonlinear MPC

    Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada · University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

  21. Robust Integrated Planning and Control for Quadrotors in Dynamic Environments via NMPC with CBF Penalties

    May 31, 2026Zeinab Shayan, Mohammadreza Izadi, Reza FaieghiNonlinear MPCControl Barrier Functions

    Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada.

  22. A Progress-Aware Leader-Follower Midair Docking System for Dual-Drone Aerial Manipulation

    May 28, 2026Yifan Cai, Jan Ming Kevin Tan, Xiangqi Li +3Aerial RoboticsMulti-Robot Coordination

    Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom · Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

  23. HoLoArm: Deformable Arms for Collision-Tolerant Quadrotor Flight

    May 25, 2026Quang Ngoc Pham, Jonas Eschmann, Yang Zhou +3Aerial RoboticsQuadrotor Control

    Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), Ishikawa, 923-1292 Japan · University of California Berkeley, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA · New York University, Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA

  24. AcroRL: Learning Aggressive Quadrotor Inversion using Bidirectional Thrust

    May 23, 2026Gabriel Rodriguez, Henri Sayag, Abhishek Rathod +4RL ControlAerial Robotics

    Carnegie Mellon University · Shield AI

  25. Vision-Based Agile Landing on Turbulent Waters

    May 22, 2026Dimosthenis Angelis, Leonard Bauersfeld, Davide Scaramuzza +1RL for RoboticsAerial Robotics

    Department of Electrical and Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark · Robotics and Perception Group, Department of Informatics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

  26. Modeling and Control of a Pneumatic Morphing Soft Quadrotor based on the SOFA Framework for Dynamic Soft Robotic Simulation

    May 20, 2026F. Labra Caso, V. Sumathy, P. Ferrentino +3Aerial RoboticsRobotics Simulation

    Robotics & AI Luleå University of Technology · IMEC Center VUB Brussels University

  27. Aerial Inspection Behaviors via RL-based Quadrotor Control for Under-canopy Forest Environments

    May 19, 2026Fausto Mauricio Lagos Suarez, Akshit Saradagi, Vidya Sumathy +2RL ControlRobot Trajectory Tracking

    Robotics and AI group, in the Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering at Luleåa University of Technology, Sweden

  28. A Heuristic Approach for Performance Tuning in RL-based Quadrotor Control via Reward Design and Termination Conditions

    May 18, 2026Fausto Mauricio Lagos Suarez, Akshit Saradagi, Vidya Sumathy +1RL ControlRobot Trajectory Tracking

    Robotics and AI group, in the Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering at Luleåa University of Technology, Sweden

  29. Adaptive Outer-Loop Control of Quadrotors via Reinforcement Learning

    May 15, 2026Vishnu Saj, Sushil Vemuri, Dileep Kalathil +1RL ControlSim-to-Real Transfer

    Texas A&M University College Station, TX, USA

  30. Sensitivity-Based Robust NMPC for Close-Proximity Offshore Wind Turbine Inspection with a Tilted Multirotor

    May 8, 2026Giuseppe Silano, Martin SaskaIndustrial InspectionRobust Control

    Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico S.p.A., Milan, Italy, and the Czech Technical University in Prague, Czechia · Czech Technical University in Prague, Czechia