Configuration-Induced Passive Self-Rotation for Perception-Enhanced Autonomous Flight
2026-07-20 • Robotics
Robotics
AI summaryⓘ
The authors designed a special drone called a tricopter that spins on its own without extra sensors to see more around it. They adjusted the drone's back part to find the best balance between how fast it spins and how well it flies. They also created smart planning and control systems so the drone can fly quickly and steadily, even while spinning. Their tests showed the drone can navigate tricky spaces and follow paths accurately using this spinning method.
autonomous flightfield of view (FoV)passive self-rotationtricoptertrajectory trackingwaypoint navigationcluttered environmentsplanning and controldisturbance rejection
Authors
Xurui Liu, Miao Wang, Tianyu He, Linrui Yang, Xiaobin Zhou
Abstract
Autonomous flight in confined and cluttered environments is fundamentally limited by the restricted field of view (FoV) of onboard sensors. Passive self-rotation expands sensing coverage without additional sensors but introduces a tradeoff between swept-FoV refresh rate and flight performance. This letter presents a configuration-induced passively self-rotating tricopter for perception-enhanced autonomous flight. Firstly, the rear-arm configuration parameter is exploited to regulate the passive self-rotation operating point, providing an airframe-level mechanism for balancing swept-FoV refresh rate and flight performance. Secondly, a hierarchical autonomy framework integrating planning and control is developed to enable agile and robust autonomous flight under continuous passive self-rotation. For waypoint-based inspection, guide-point replanning is further used to improve task-level coverage. Extensive real-world experiments, including high-speed trajectory tracking, disturbance-rejection tests, and autonomous navigation in representative cluttered environments, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach for perception-enhanced autonomous flight.