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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yeh, Tingyu, Xu, Mengxin, Han, Lijun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02022
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author Yeh, Tingyu
Xu, Mengxin
Han, Lijun
author_facet Yeh, Tingyu
Xu, Mengxin
Han, Lijun
contents In this work, we propose a novel quadrotor design capable of folding its arms vertically to grasp objects and navigate through narrow spaces. The transformation is controlled actively by a central servomotor, gears, and racks. The arms connect the motor bases to the central frame, forming a parallelogram structure that ensures the propellers maintain a constant orientation during morphing. In its stretched state, the quadrotor resembles a conventional design, and when contracted, it functions as a gripper with grasping components emerging from the motor bases. To mitigate disturbances during transforming and grasping payloads, we employ an adaptive sliding mode controller with a disturbance observer. After fully folded, the quadrotor frame shrinks to 67% of its original size. The control performance and versatility of the morphing quadrotor are validated through real-world experiments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_02022
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Design and Control of an Actively Morphing Quadrotor with Vertically Foldable Arms
Yeh, Tingyu
Xu, Mengxin
Han, Lijun
Robotics
In this work, we propose a novel quadrotor design capable of folding its arms vertically to grasp objects and navigate through narrow spaces. The transformation is controlled actively by a central servomotor, gears, and racks. The arms connect the motor bases to the central frame, forming a parallelogram structure that ensures the propellers maintain a constant orientation during morphing. In its stretched state, the quadrotor resembles a conventional design, and when contracted, it functions as a gripper with grasping components emerging from the motor bases. To mitigate disturbances during transforming and grasping payloads, we employ an adaptive sliding mode controller with a disturbance observer. After fully folded, the quadrotor frame shrinks to 67% of its original size. The control performance and versatility of the morphing quadrotor are validated through real-world experiments.
title Design and Control of an Actively Morphing Quadrotor with Vertically Foldable Arms
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02022