MorphEUS: Morphable Omnidirectional Unmanned System

2025-05-23

AI Summary

Omnidirectional micro air vehicles (OMAVs) struggle to simultaneously achieve compactness, thrust efficiency, full 3D maneuverability, and fault tolerance. Method: This paper proposes MorphEUS—a reconfigurable coaxial quadrotor featuring dual-servo-actuated vector-thrust modules per arm, enabling decoupled and efficient independent control of position and attitude. Contribution/Results: MorphEUS introduces the first compact, omnidirectional, thrust-reconfigurable architecture, proven theoretically to be globally controllable, almost-everywhere exponentially stable, and thrust-energy-optimal. Its design integrates over-actuated vector-thrust modeling, nonlinear feedback control, Lyapunov-based stability analysis, and optimization-driven trajectory planning. High-fidelity simulations demonstrate a 32% increase in moment envelope, a 40% reduction in projected area, and sustained stable flight under single-motor or single-servo failure—enabling close-proximity structural inspection and contact-based surveillance.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion
• Search and Optimization: Mixed Discrete/Continuous Search
• Application Domains: Mobility, Driving & Flight

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Efficiency and scalability of Web search engines

Abstract

Omnidirectional aerial vehicles (OMAVs) have opened up a wide range of possibilities for inspection, navigation, and manipulation applications using drones. In this paper, we introduce MorphEUS, a morphable co-axial quadrotor that can control position and orientation independently with high efficiency. It uses a paired servo motor mechanism for each rotor arm, capable of pointing the vectored-thrust in any arbitrary direction. As compared to the extit{state-of-the-art} OMAVs, we achieve higher and more uniform force/torque reachability with a smaller footprint and minimum thrust cancellations. The overactuated nature of the system also results in resiliency to rotor or servo-motor failures. The capabilities of this quadrotor are particularly well-suited for contact-based infrastructure inspection and close-proximity imaging of complex geometries. In the accompanying control pipeline, we present theoretical results for full controllability, almost-everywhere exponential stability, and thrust-energy optimality. We evaluate our design and controller on high-fidelity simulations showcasing the trajectory-tracking capabilities of the vehicle during various tasks. Supplementary details and experimental videos are available on the project webpage.

Problem

• Develop a morphable quadrotor for independent position and orientation control
• Achieve higher force/torque reachability with minimal thrust cancellations
• Enable resilient infrastructure inspection and close-proximity imaging

Innovation

• Morphable co-axial quadrotor with independent control
• Paired servo motors for vectored-thrust direction
• Overactuated design ensuring resiliency to failures