Geometry Aware NMPC Scheme for Morphing Quadrotor Navigation in Restricted Entrances

Geometry-morphing Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) are gaining more attention lately, since, their ability to modify their geometric morphology in-flight increases their versatility while expanding their application range. In this novel research field, most of the works focus on the platform design and on the low-level control for maintaining stability after changing its shape. Nevertheless, another aspect of geometry morphing MAVs is the association of its morphology with respect to the shape and structure of the environment. In this article, we propose a novel Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) structure that modifies the morphology of a quadrotor based on the environment entrances’ geometrical shape. The proposed method considers restricted entrances as a constraint in the NMPC and modifies the arm configuration of the MAV to provide a collision-free path from the initial position to the desired goal while passing through the entrance. Multiple simulation results present the performance and efficiency of the proposed scheme in scenarios where the quadrotor is commanded to pass through narrow entrances.