2026-07-15 04:00 UTCOriginal source2 min readUpdated: 2026-07-15 08:39 UTC

Flatness-Preserving Residual Learning for Real-Time Tight Quadrotor Formation Flight

Researchers propose a physics-informed residual dynamics learning framework that preserves differential flatness for tight quadrotor formation flight. The approach enables a computationally efficient feedback linearization controller, reducing tracking errors by 31% compared to baselines. It matches NMPC performance with an order of magnitude less computation, requiring under 30 seconds of training data and a 5ms loop rate.

SourcearXiv RoboticsAuthor: Pei-An Hsieh, Fengjun Yang, Nikolai Matni, M. Ani Hsieh

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[Submitted on 14 Jul 2026]

Title:Flatness-Preserving Residual Learning for Real-Time Tight Quadrotor Formation Flight

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Abstract:Quadrotors flying in tight formations are severely affected by turbulent aerodynamic interactions, such as downwash, that can cause catastrophic collisions if left unmodeled. To compensate for these effects, we propose a physics-informed residual dynamics learning framework that captures complex aerodynamic interactions while ensuring the joint multi-quadrotor system remains differentially flat. We leverage this preserved flatness to design a computationally efficient feedback linearization controller that is easily tunable with linear control techniques and cancels aerodynamic disturbances via feedforward compensation. Hardware experiments demonstrate our framework reduces average tracking errors by 31% compared to nominal baselines. Crucially, our lightweight approach matches the tracking performance of state-of-the-art nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) while requiring an order of magnitude less computation. We are the first to show that stable, tight formation flight can be achieved with under 30 seconds of training data and a 5ms loop rate, unlocking high-fidelity aerodynamic compensation for compute-constrained flight stacks.

Comments: Accepted at IROS 26'

Subjects:

Robotics (cs.RO); Systems and Control (eess.SY)

Cite as: arXiv:2607.12275 [cs.RO]

(or arXiv:2607.12275v1 [cs.RO] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.12275

arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

Submission history

From: Fengjun Yang [view email] [v1] Tue, 14 Jul 2026 02:25:04 UTC (516 KB)

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