Professor Fu Zhang of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, with contributions from his research team and collaborators, conducted the research “An autonomous single-actuator UAV with omnidirectional field of view, high agility, and collision resistance”. The research findings were published in Nature Communications on May 21, 2026.

Details of the publication:

An autonomous single-actuator UAV with omnidirectional field of view, high agility, and collision resistance

Nan Chen, Haotian Li, Yunfan Ren, Guozheng Lu, Fangcheng Zhu, Jiarong Lin & Fu Zhang

Article in Nature Communications

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-73283-x 

Abstract:

A single-actuator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) named PULSAR II is driven by one motor and achieves three-dimensional maneuverability and natural self-rotation. This motion enables an omnidirectional field of view (FoV) for light detection and ranging (LiDAR), thereby eliminating unobserved areas. To enhance agility, we first built an accurate propulsion model using a data-driven method and compensated its nonlinearities. Then, we designed model predictive controller on the S2 manifold for minimal parameterization and aggressive tracking performance. We also derived the UAV’s differential flatness to simplify trajectory optimization. To ensure collision resistance, we designed a protective solid frame structure around the UAV and developed a disturbance observer to reject collision-induced disturbances in a fictional coordinate frame that decouples self-rotation, with parameters optimized by μ synthesis to address model uncertainty. By integrating all modules, we established an autonomous UAV system that demonstrated agile, robust, and fully autonomous flight in real-world