Bumper Drone: Elastic Morphology Design for Aerial Physical Interaction

2026-02-21

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenge of stable near-obstacle flight for unmanned aerial vehicles in unknown environments, where uncertain contact forces hinder reliable operation. To overcome this, the authors propose a passive embodied control strategy based on an elastic corner structure that leverages environmental interaction as an intrinsic control mechanism. Inspired by mass-spring-damper dynamics, the design enables “touch-and-go” wall-following behavior without requiring high-precision sensing or active obstacle avoidance. The system employs only a standard attitude PID controller, augmented by the passive compliance of the elastic mechanical structure and its associated dynamic model. Experimental results demonstrate that the elastic corner effectively dissipates impact energy, significantly enhancing flight stability: pitch oscillations are reduced by 38% compared to a rigid counterpart, with a low-mounted configuration achieving approximately 54% reduction, while enabling sustained and stable physical contact.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Behavior Learning & Control
• Multiagent Systems: Multiagent Systems under Uncertainty
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Replanning and Plan Repair

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
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs

Abstract

Aerial robots are evolving from avoiding obstacles to exploiting the environmental contact interactions for navigation, exploration and manipulation. A key challenge in such aerial physical interactions lies in handling uncertain contact forces on unknown targets, which typically demand accurate sensing and active control. We present a drone platform with elastic horns that enables touch-and-go manoeuvres - a self-regulated, consecutive bumping motion that allows the drone to maintain proximity to a wall without relying on active obstacle avoidance. It leverages environmental interaction as a form of embodied control, where low-level stabilisation and near-obstacle navigation emerge from the passive dynamic responses of the drone-obstacle system that resembles a mass-spring-damper system. Experiments show that the elastic horn can absorb impact energy while maintaining vehicle stability, reducing pitch oscillations by 38% compared to the rigid horn configuration. The lower horn arrangement was found to reduce pitch oscillations by approximately 54%. In addition to intermittent contact, the platform equipped with elastic horns also demonstrates stable, sustained contact with static objects, relying on a standard attitude PID controller.

Problem

• aerial physical interaction
• uncertain contact forces
• obstacle interaction
• passive dynamics
• embodied control

Innovation

• elastic morphology
• aerial physical interaction
• embodied control
• passive dynamics
• touch-and-go manoeuvre