A team of cyber-systems researchers, engineers, optical specialists and roboticists at Zhejiang University, in China, has developed a navigation system for quadcopter drones that gives them the ability to carry out precise flight maneuvers autonomously. As reported in the journal Science Robotics, the group developed a multi-pronged system that allows quadcopter drones to carry out complex aerobatic maneuvers autonomously, in a safe manner, both indoors and outdoors.
It would be advantageous if drones were able to carry out tasks autonomously without human intervention. It would allow for flying tasks beyond the sight of a remote pilot, for example. It would also greatly reduce the cost of other tasks, such as delivering packages. Because of that, researchers have been working to make drones smarter.
Just two years ago, a team at the University of Zurich developed what they described as a highly agile quadrotor drone that was able to avoid obstacles and carry out trajectory tracking. In this new study, the research team in China has taken such work further by giving drones the ability to autonomously perform tricky flying maneuvers that are sometimes needed to complete a given task.
To give their drone more autonomy, the researchers developed what they describe as a system that defines a flight as a series of aerobatic intentions. Each intention may represent a change in attitude—the position of the craft in three-dimensional space relative to the horizon—in response to the surrounding topology, allowing for precise and intricate flight maneuvers.
Their system also involved adding a trajectory planner to make the flight path as smooth as possible and to avoid colliding with fixed objects. They also added software to address yaw sensitivity to help flatten out yaw rotational issues.
In practice, their system uses preloaded maps, in-flight onboard computing and visual processing that converts topological metrics into aerial movements, allowing for constantly adjusting a flight path based on conditions.
The system allows for conducting unstable attitudes at times, which, it has been noted, is how birds and bats are able to achieve such precise flying.
The team has tested their system with both simulations and real-world drones and has found it can be used to allow drones to safely fly both indoors and outdoors. They also found it could be used to allow drones to autonomously carry out aerobatic maneuvers and to safely navigate an obstacle course.
More information:
Mingyang Wang et al, Unlocking aerobatic potential of quadcopters: Autonomous freestyle flight generation and execution, Science Robotics (2025). DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.adp9905
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Giving quadcopter drones the ability to carry out precise flight maneuvers autonomously (2025, April 17)
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