Guanrui Li

ClearNav: Perception-Aligned Quadrotor Flight Using Differential-Physics

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Safety-Critical Quadrotor Navigation Using Fourth-Order Control Barrier Functions with Full Nonlinear Quadrotor Dynamics

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DQ-MPCC: Dual-Quaternion MPCC for Quadrotor Racing

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

ACP Lab Led the Why Rust for Robotics Workshop at IROS 2026

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Our lab led the full day workshop “Why Rust for Robotics: A Perspective From Industry” at IROS 2026 in Pittsburgh on September 27, 2026, with Prof. Guanrui Li serving as the lead organizer. The program featured eight invited talks, a panel discussion, live code demonstrations, and a poster session on why industry teams are adopting Rust for robotics software and what academia can learn from them. The workshop builds on the Rust for Robotics workshop that our lab led at ICRA 2025.

Visit the workshop website for the program and materials.

Prof. Guanrui Li Organized the Multi-Robot Autonomy Workshop at the 2026 NSF FRR Robotics Annual Meeting

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Prof. Guanrui Li organized the Multi-Robot Autonomy Workshop at the 2026 NSF FRR Robotics Annual Meeting, held on September 25 and 26 in Pittsburgh. The workshop examined the future of multi-robot autonomy through the interplay of perception, mapping, learning, and planning.

Ethan Chandler Named a 2026–2027 Amazon Robotics Fellow

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Congratulations to Ethan Chandler, a Ph.D. student in the ACP Lab, on being selected as a 2026–2027 Amazon Robotics Fellowship recipient! Ethan’s research develops optimal control methods for underactuated systems such as quadrotors and legged robots. His new algebraic Riccati equation for spectrally discretized optimal control problems reduces the solve-time complexity from cubic to linear, enabling highly accurate agile motion, with quadrotor experiments reaching sub-centimeter accuracy at speeds above 10 m/s.

Read the WPI announcement.

1 paper accepted by RA-L!

Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Our work on Vision-Based Tactile Model Predictive Control for robotic contour following has been accepted by by RA-L!!

VBT-MPC: Vision-Based Tactile MPC for Contour Following

Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

1 paper accepted by ICRA!

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Our work on Trajectory Planning Using Safe Ellipsoidal Corridors as Projections of Orthogonal Trust Regions has been accepted by ICRA!

Trajectory Planning Using Safe Ellipsoidal Corridors as Projections of Orthogonal Trust Regions

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

1 paper accepted by RA-L!

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Our work on Polytopic Optimal Planning for Collision-Free Cable-Suspended Aerial Payload Transportation for cable-suspended payload has been accepted by RA-L!

ES-HPC-MPC: Exponentially Stable Hybrid Perception Constrained MPC for Quadrotor with Suspended Payloads

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

1 paper accepted by RA-L!

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Our work on ES-HPC-MPC: Exponentially Stable Hybrid Perception Constrained MPC for Quadrotor with Suspended Payloads has been accepted by RA-L!

1 paper accepted by RA-L!

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Our work on DQ-NMPC: Dual-Quaternion NMPC for Quadrotor Flight has been accepted by RA-L!

PolyFly: Polytopic Optimal Planning for Collision-Free Cable-Suspended Aerial Payload Transportation

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

DQ-NMPC: Dual-Quaternion NMPC for Quadrotor Flight

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Laasya Kodandaramu won Glenn Yee Fall 2025 Project Award!

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One of our Robotics Engineering graduate student - Laasya Kodandaramu won Glenn Yee Fall 2025 Project Award for Safe Optimal Control for Quadrotor Swarms project.

Prof. Guanrui Li Organized the Workshop on Rust for Robotics at ICRA 2025

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Prof. Guanrui Li co-organized the workshop on “Rust for Robotics: Building Robust Foundations for Tomorrow’s Autonomous Systems” at ICRA 2025, with Yang Zhou, Jiuhong Xiao and Prof. Giuseppe Loianno at ARPL, Haixuan Tao at 1ms.ai and Guillaume Binet, Kuniko Binet at Copper Robotics

Check the workshop website here: https://sites.google.com/view/r4rworkshop

Prof. Guanrui Li Organized the Workshop on Embodied-AI for Aerial Robots at ICUAS 2025

Sat, 17 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Prof. Guanrui Li co-organized with Prof. Nitin Sanket, Prof. Melissa Greeff, and Dr. Sihao Sun a workshop on the topic of “Embodied-AI for Aerial Robots: What do we need for full autonomy?” at ICUAS 2025!

Check the workshop website here: https://uasconferences.com/2025_icuas/t2-half-day-workshop/

Check the workshop recording here: Coming Soon!

Enhancing Human-Drone Spatial Awareness with a Mixed Reality Interface for Drone Assisted Interactive Navigation

Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

1 journal paper accepted by Robotics and Autonomous Systems!

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Our work on dual quaternion Lidar odometry and mapping has been accepted by Robotics and Autonomous Systems!

Two papers are accepted by ICRA 2025!

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Our conference papers on optimal trajectory planning for cooperative manipulation with quadrotor teams and decentralized MPC for obstacle avoidance of quadrotor team have been accepted to ICRA 2025!

Rust for Robotics Workshop has been accepted by ICRA 2025!

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Our workshop co-organized with ARPL, 1ms.ai and Copper Robotics on “Rust for Robotics: Building Robust Foundations for Tomorrow’s Autonomous Systems” has accepted by ICRA 2025! Check the workshop website here: https://sites.google.com/view/r4rworkshop

DualQuat-LOAM LiDAR Odometry and Mapping parametrized on Dual Quaternions

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Human-Aware Physical Human-Robot Collaborative Transportation and Manipulation with Multiple Aerial Robots

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

1 paper accepted by T-RO!

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Our work on has been accepted by T-RO!

1 paper accepted by RA-L!

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Our work on HPA-MPC for cable-suspended payload has been accepted by RA-L!

Decentralized Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Safe Collision Avoidance in Quadrotor Teams with Limited Detection Range

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Optimal Trajectory Planning for Cooperative Manipulation with Multiple Quadrotors Using Control Barrier Functions

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Experimental System Design of an Active Fault-Tolerant Quadrotor

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

HPA-MPC: Hybrid Perception-Aware Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Quadrotors with Suspended Loads

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

RotorTM: A Flexible Simulator for Aerial Transportation and Manipulation

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Geometric Fault-Tolerant Control of Quadrotors in Case of Rotor Failures: An Attitude Based Comparative Study

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Cooperative Transportation and Manipulation of Cable Suspended Payloads with Multiple Quadrotors

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Learning Model Predictive Control for Quadrotors

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Physics-Inspired Temporal Learning of Quadrotor Dynamics for Accurate Model Predictive Trajectory Tracking

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Vision-based Relative Detection and Tracking for Teams of Micro Aerial Vehicles

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Aggressive Visual Perching with Quadrotors on Inclined Surfaces

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Cooperative Transportation of Cable Suspended Payloads With MAVs Using Monocular Vision and Inertial Sensing

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Design and Experimental Evaluation of Distributed Cooperative Transportation of Cable Suspended Payloads with Micro Aerial Vehicles

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

PCMPC: Perception-Constrained Model Predictive Control for Quadrotors with Suspended Loads using a Single Camera and IMU

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract:

In this paper, we address the Perception–Constrained Model Predictive Control (PCMPC) and state estimation problems for quadrotors with cable suspended payloads using a single camera and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). We design a receding–horizon control strategy for cable suspended payloads directly formulated on the system manifold configuration space SE(3)xS^2. The approach considers the system dynamics, actuator limits and the camera’s Field Of View (FOV) constraint to guarantee the payload’s visibility during motion. The monocular camera, IMU, and vehicle’s motor speeds are combined to provide estimation of the vehicle’s states in 3D space, the payload’s states, the cable’s direction and velocity. The proposed control and state estimation solution runs in real-time at 500 Hz on a small quadrotor equipped with a limited computational unit. The approach is validated through experimental results considering a cable suspended payload trajectory tracking problem at different speeds.

Efficient Trajectory Library Filtering for Quadrotor Flight in Unknown Environments

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

ModQuad-DoF: A Novel Yaw Actuation for Modular Quadrotors

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Observability-Aware Trajectories for Geometric and Inertial Self-Calibration

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

ModQuad-Vi: A vision-based self-assembling modular quadrotor

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

ModQuad: The flying modular structure that self-assembles in midair

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000