Publications

Autonomous Tail-Sitter Flights in Unknown Environments

Published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics (TRO), 2024

Trajectory generation for fully autonomous flights of tail-sitter unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) presents substantial challenges due to their highly … Read more

Recommended citation:

Lu, G., Ren, Y., Zhu, F., Li, H., Xue, R., Cai, Y., ... & Zhang, F. (2024). Autonomous Tail-Sitter Flights in Unknown Environments. in IEEE Transactions on Robotics. [pdf] [bib]

Swarm-LIO2: Decentralized Efficient LiDAR-inertial Odometry for UAV Swarms

Published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics (TRO), 2024

Aerial swarm systems possess immense potential in various aspects, such as cooperative exploration, target tracking, search and rescue. Efficient, … Read more

Recommended citation:

Zhu, F., Ren, Y., Yin, L., Kong, F., Liu, Q., Xue, R., Liu, W., Cai, Y., Lu, G., Li, H. & Zhang, F. (2024). Swarm-LIO2: Decentralized, Efficient LiDAR-inertial Odometry for UAV Swarms. in IEEE Transactions on Robotics. [pdf] [bib]

Large-scale Multi-session Point-cloud Map Merging

Published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RAL), 2024

This paper introduces LAMM, an open-source framework for large-scale multi-session 3D LiDAR point cloud map merging. LAMM can automatically integrate … Read more

Recommended citation:

Wei, H., Li, R., Cai, Y., Yuan, C., Ren, Y., Zou, Z., Wu, H., Zheng, C., Zhou, S., Xue, K., Zhang, F. (2023) "Large-scale Multi-session Point-cloud Map Merging," in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, doi: 10.1109/LRA.2024.3504317 [pdf] [bib]

ROG-Map: An Efficient Robocentric Occupancy Grid Map for Large-scene and High-resolution LiDAR-based Motion Planning

Published in IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2024), 2024

Recent advances in LiDAR technology have opened up new possibilities for robotic navigation. Given the widespread use of occupancy grid maps (OGMs) … Read more

Recommended citation:

Ren, Y., Cai, Y., Zhu, F., Liang, S., & Zhang, F. (2023). ROG-map: An efficient robocentric occupancy grid map for large-scene and high-resolution LiDAR-based motion planning. In 2024, International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). IEEE. [pdf] [bib]

MARS-LVIG dataset: A multi-sensor aerial robots SLAM dataset for LiDAR-visual-inertial-GNSS fusion

Published in International Journal of Robotics Research, 2023

In recent years, advancements in Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology have made 3D LiDAR sensors more compact, lightweight, and affordable. … Read more

Recommended citation:

Haotian Li and Yuying Zou and Nan Chen and Jiarong Lin and Xiyuan Liu and Wei Xu and Chunran Zheng and Rundong Li and Dongjiao He and Fanze Kong and Yixi Cai and Zheng Liu and Shunbo Zhou and Kaiwen Xue and Fu Zhang.(2024). MARS-LVIG dataset: A multi-sensor aerial robots SLAM dataset for LiDAR-visual-inertial-GNSS fusion. The International Journal of Robotics Research. [pdf] [bib]

Occupancy Grid Mapping without Ray-Casting for High-resolution Sensors

Published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics (TRO), 2023

Occupancy mapping is a fundamental component of robotic systems to reason about the unknown and known regions of the environment. This article … Read more

Recommended citation:

Y. Cai, F. Kong, Y. Ren, F. Zhu, J. Lin and F. Zhang, "Occupancy Grid Mapping Without Ray-Casting for High-Resolution LiDAR Sensors," in IEEE Transactions on Robotics, doi: 10.1109/TRO.2023.3323936. [pdf] [bib]

Trajectory Generation and Tracking Control for Aggressive Tail-Sitter Flights

Published in International Journal of Robotics Research, 2023

We address the theoretical and practical problems related to the trajectory generation and tracking control of tail-sitter UAVs. Theoretically, we … Read more

Recommended citation:

Lu, G., Cai, Y., Chen, N., Kong, F., Ren, Y., & Zhang, F. (2022). Trajectory Generation and Tracking Control for Aggressive Tail-Sitter Flights. arXiv preprint arXiv:2212.11552. [pdf] [bib]

Immesh: An immediate lidar localization and meshing framework

Published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics (TRO), 2023

In this paper, we propose a novel LiDAR(-inertial) odometry and mapping framework to achieve the goal of simultaneous localization and meshing in … Read more

Recommended citation:

Lin, J., Yuan, C., Cai, Y., Li, H., Zou, Y., Hong, X., & Zhang, F. (2023). Immesh: An immediate lidar localization and meshing framework. arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.05206. [pdf] [bib]

MARSIM: A light-weight point-realistic simulator for LiDAR-based UAVs

Published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RAL), 2023

The emergence of LiDAR sensors have brought new opportunities for autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by advancing navigation safety and … Read more

Recommended citation:

Kong, F., Liu, X., Tang, B., Lin, J., Ren, Y., Cai, Y., ... & Zhang, F. (2023). MARSIM: A light-weight point-realistic simulator for LiDAR-based UAVs. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 8(5), 2954-2961. [pdf] [bib]

A Self-rotating, Single-actuated UAV with Extended Sensor Field of View for Autonomous Navigation

Published in Science Robotics, 2023

Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) rely heavily on visual sensors to perceive obstacles and explore environments. Current UAVs are limited in both … Read more

Recommended citation:

Chen, N., Kong, F., Xu, W., Cai, Y., Li, H., He, D., ... & Zhang, F. (2023). A self-rotating, single-actuated UAV with extended sensor field of view for autonomous navigation. Science Robotics, 8(76), eade4538. [pdf] [bib]

Gemini II: Design, Modeling, and Control of a Compact Yet Efficient Servoless Bi-copter

Published in IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (TMECH), 2022

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are widely used in the field for tasks that require 3-D movements in space. The simultaneous demand for heavy payload … Read more

Recommended citation:

Y. Qin, N. Chen, Y. Cai, W. Xu and F. Zhang, Gemini II: Design, Modeling, and Control of a Compact Yet Efficient Servoless Bi-copter," in IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 4304-4315, Dec. 2022, doi: 10.1109/TMECH.2022.3153587." [pdf] [bib]

FAST-LIO2: Fast Direct Lidar-Inertial Odometry

Published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics (TRO), 2022

This article presents FAST-LIO2: a fast, robust, and versatile LiDAR-inertial odometry framework. Building on a highly efficient tightly coupled … Read more

Recommended citation:

W. Xu, Y. Cai, D. He, J. Lin and F. Zhang, "FAST-LIO2: Fast Direct LiDAR-Inertial Odometry," in IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 2053-2073, Aug. 2022, doi: 10.1109/TRO.2022.3141876. [pdf] [bib]

Robots’ State Estimation and Observability Analysis Based on Statistical Motion Models

Published in IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology (TCST), 2022

This article presents a generic motion model to capture mobile robots' dynamic behaviors (translation and rotation). The model is based on … Read more

Recommended citation:

W. Xu, D. He, Y. Cai and F. Zhang, Robots' State Estimation and Observability Analysis Based on Statistical Motion Models," in IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 2030-2045, Sept. 2022, doi: 10.1109/TCST.2021.3133080." [pdf] [bib]

Avoiding Dynamic Small Obstacles with Onboard Sensing and Computation on Aerial Robots

Published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RAL), 2021

In practical applications, autonomous quadrotors are still facing significant challenges, such as the detection and avoidance of very small and even … Read more

Recommended citation:

F. Kong, W. Xu, Y. Cai and F. Zhang, Avoiding Dynamic Small Obstacles With Onboard Sensing and Computation on Aerial Robots," in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 7869-7876, Oct. 2021, doi: 10.1109/LRA.2021.3101877." [pdf] [bib]

ikd-Tree: An Incremental KD Tree for Robotic Applications

Published in Preprint, 2021

This paper proposes an efficient data structure, ikd-Tree, for dynamic space partition. The ikd-Tree incrementally updates a k-d tree with new coming … Read more

Recommended citation:

Cai, Y., Xu, W., & Zhang, F. (2021). ikd-tree: An incremental kd tree for robotic applications. arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.10808. [pdf] [bib]