2025/12/04 by Ioannis Mandralis, Mandralis, Ioannis, Morteza Gharib +2
Engineering · #Aeroelasticity and Vibration Control #Aerospace Engineering and Energy Systems #Biomimetic flight and propulsion mechanisms #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Robotics (cs.RO)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2512.05211
openalex publication_date 2025/12/04 · openalex created_date 2025/12/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
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.