FLOAT Drone for Physical Interaction: Lateral Airflow Reduction, Wrench Modeling, and Adaptive Control

Jul 16, 2026

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Aerial physical interaction enables next-generation UAVs to move from passive sensing toward active manipulation and maintenance, yet it demands contact-force capability without sacrificing flight stability. For close-proximity tasks, the design must (1) generate stable multidimensional wrench outputs, (2) remain compact for maneuvering and safety in confined spaces, and (3) reduce lateral airflow toward the target when producing horizontal force. FLOAT Drone is a fully actuated coaxial UAV using servo-driven control surfaces in rotor downwash to generate 6-DoF wrench. Force-matched CFD benchmarks quantify reduced target-facing lateral airflow versus a tilted-rotor alternative. A high-fidelity polynomial aerodynamic wrench model, identified from precision measurements, supports constrained nonlinear real-time wrench tracking, improving accuracy, disturbance rejection, and drawer push–pull manipulation through a 2 cm handle clearance.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

Introduction

Design requirements for close-proximity aerial interaction

Limitations of conventional multirotor and existing fully actuated approaches

Motivation for FLOAT Drone and planned solutions

FLOAT Drone for Physical Interaction: Lateral Airflow Reduction, Wrench Modeling, and Adaptive Control Junxiao Lin∗ , Kehan Zhou∗ , Shuhang Ji, Yimin Peng, Shen Wang, Jialiang Hou†, and Fei Gao† arXiv :2607 .04260v 1 [ cs .RO] 5 Jul 2026 Fig. 1. Close-proximity drawer push–pull manipulation with FLOAT Drone. (a) Approach and alignment using the side-mounted 3-D printed hook. (b) Hook insertion through the 2 cm handle clearance, with the inset showing the hook–handle interface. (c) Pull-open motion. (d) Push-close motion. Abstract—Aerial physical interaction represents a promising direction for next-generation unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), but it requires an aerial platform that can exert contact forces while maintaining stable flight. For close-proximity tasks, this translates into three coupled design requirements: multidimensional wrench generation for stable contact, compactness for maneuverability and safety in confined spaces, and reduced lateral airflow toward the target when generating horizontal force. This article presents FLOAT Drone, a fully actuated coaxial UAV with servo-driven control surfaces for close-proximity physical interaction. The coaxial dual-rotor layout provides a compact propulsion layout, while the control surfaces, immersed in the rotor downwash, generate lateral forces and moments for 6-DoF wrench generation. A force-matched computational fluid dynamics (CFD) comparison with a tilted-rotor alternative quantifies the reduction in target-facing lateral airflow. To account for nonlinear rotor– control-surface coupling in the rotor wake, a high-fidelity polynomial aerodynamic wrench model is identified from precision force measurements and embedded in a constrained nonlinear allocator for real-time wrench tracking. Comparative flight and interaction experiments show that the proposed framework improves control accuracy over linear allocation baselines, rejects ground-effect and payload disturbances, and enables close-proximity drawer push–pull manipulation through a 2 cm handle clearance. Index Terms—Aerial physical interaction, fully actuated UAV, adaptive control. I. INTRODUCTION AERIAL physical interaction is an important direction for next-generation UAVs, enabling aerial robots to move beyond passive sensing and inspection [1], [2] toward active manipulation, transportation, and maintenance tasks [3], [4] . Unlike free-flight missions, physical interaction requires a UAV to maintain stable flight while exerting contact forces on ∗ Equal contribution. †Corresponding authors: Jialiang Hou and Fei Gao. All authors are with the Institute of Cyber-Systems and Control, College of Control Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. Jialiang Hou and Fei Gao are also with the Differential Robotics Technology Company, Hangzhou 311100, China. This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant No. 2023YFB4706600, the Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Plan Project under Grant No. 2024C01170 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 62322314. E-mail: {jxlin, jlhou25, [fgaoa](fgaoa}@zju.edu.cn)[}](fgaoa}@zju.edu.cn)[@zju.edu.cn](fgaoa}@zju.edu.cn) the environment, which places stringent requirements on both the platform design and the control system. Stable contact requires the platform to generate and regulate multidimensional wrenches, while close-proximity operation in confined spaces further demands a compact size for maneuverability and safety. In addition, when horizontal forces are produced by tilting the vehicle or redirecting rotor thrust, part of the rotor-induced airflow can be directed toward the target, causing undesirable aerodynamic interference. Therefore, an interaction-oriented aerial platform should combine decoupled wrench generation, compactness, and reduced lateral airflow when generating horizontal forces. Conventional multirotor UAVs are inherently underactuated because t

FAQs

What three coupled requirements guide the close-proximity UAV design in this work?

The work specifies stable multidimensional wrench generation, compactness for safe maneuvering in confined spaces, and reduced lateral airflow toward the target when producing horizontal force.

How does FLOAT Drone generate 6-DoF wrenches without relying on vehicle tilting?

It uses servo-driven control surfaces immersed in the coaxial rotor downwash to generate lateral forces and moments, enabling 6-DoF wrench generation instead of tilting or rotor thrust vectoring.

How are model nonlinearities and uncertainties handled for real-time interaction control?

A high-fidelity polynomial aerodynamic wrench model is identified from precision force measurements to capture nonlinear rotor–control-surface coupling, then embedded in a constrained nonlinear allocator for real-time wrench tracking.

Jul 16, 2026

Upload by Violet