Bumper Drone: Elastic Morphology Design for Aerial Physical Interaction
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866917286570360832 |
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| author | Supa, Pongporn Dunnett, Alex Xiao, Feng Wu, Rui Kovac, Mirko Kocer, Basaran Bahadir |
| author_facet | Supa, Pongporn Dunnett, Alex Xiao, Feng Wu, Rui Kovac, Mirko Kocer, Basaran Bahadir |
| contents | 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. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_18976 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Bumper Drone: Elastic Morphology Design for Aerial Physical Interaction Supa, Pongporn Dunnett, Alex Xiao, Feng Wu, Rui Kovac, Mirko Kocer, Basaran Bahadir Robotics 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. |
| title | Bumper Drone: Elastic Morphology Design for Aerial Physical Interaction |
| topic | Robotics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.18976 |