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Autori principali: Mandralis, Ioannis, Schumacher, Severin, Gharib, Morteza
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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Accesso online:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.05211
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author Mandralis, Ioannis
Schumacher, Severin
Gharib, Morteza
author_facet Mandralis, Ioannis
Schumacher, Severin
Gharib, Morteza
contents Morphing aerial robots have the potential to transform autonomous flight, enabling navigation through cluttered environments, perching, and seamless transitions between aerial and terrestrial locomotion. Yet mid-flight reconfiguration presents a critical aerodynamic challenge: tilting propulsors to achieve shape change reduces vertical thrust, undermining stability and control authority. Here, we introduce a passive wake vectoring mechanism that recovers lost thrust during morphing. Integrated into a novel robotic system, Aerially Transforming Morphobot (ATMO), internal deflectors intercept and redirect rotor wake downward, passively steering airflow momentum that would otherwise be wasted. This electronics-free solution achieves up to a 40% recovery of vertical thrust in configurations where no useful thrust would otherwise be produced, substantially extending hover and maneuvering capabilities during transformation. Our findings highlight a new direction for morphing aerial robot design, where passive aerodynamic structures, inspired by thrust vectoring in rockets and aircraft, enable efficient, agile flight without added mechanical complexity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_05211
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Wake Vectoring for Efficient Morphing Flight
Mandralis, Ioannis
Schumacher, Severin
Gharib, Morteza
Robotics
Morphing aerial robots have the potential to transform autonomous flight, enabling navigation through cluttered environments, perching, and seamless transitions between aerial and terrestrial locomotion. Yet mid-flight reconfiguration presents a critical aerodynamic challenge: tilting propulsors to achieve shape change reduces vertical thrust, undermining stability and control authority. Here, we introduce a passive wake vectoring mechanism that recovers lost thrust during morphing. Integrated into a novel robotic system, Aerially Transforming Morphobot (ATMO), internal deflectors intercept and redirect rotor wake downward, passively steering airflow momentum that would otherwise be wasted. This electronics-free solution achieves up to a 40% recovery of vertical thrust in configurations where no useful thrust would otherwise be produced, substantially extending hover and maneuvering capabilities during transformation. Our findings highlight a new direction for morphing aerial robot design, where passive aerodynamic structures, inspired by thrust vectoring in rockets and aircraft, enable efficient, agile flight without added mechanical complexity.
title Wake Vectoring for Efficient Morphing Flight
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.05211