Perception Aware Quadrotor Control: An Experimental Evaluation
Lidia PEREZ, Alessandro NAZZARI, Roberto RUBINACCI, Davide INVERNIZZI
Abstract. Accurate localization of an Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in GPS-denied environments remains a fundamental and unresolved challenge in robotics. Traditional approaches treat state estimation, trajectory planning, and control as separate modules, often assuming perfect state information. However, when visual sensors are used for localization, this assumption often breaks down under challenging conditions, such as poor lighting or textureless environments, resulting in significant drift and unreliable control decisions. Yet, perception performance can be significantly improved if the UAV’s motion is planned with the constraints and capabilities of onboard vision in mind. In this context, Perception-Awareness (PA) emerges as a strategy to adapt a UAV’s maneuvers based on the real-time perception of the environment. In this paper, we implement and evaluate a PA quadrotor controller through an extensive experimental campaign, demonstrating a reduction in odometry drift of up to 70% compared to a non-PA control approach.
Keywords
UAV, VIO, PAMPC, Perception Aware
Published online 7/20/2026, 5 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Lidia PEREZ, Alessandro NAZZARI, Roberto RUBINACCI, Davide INVERNIZZI, Perception Aware Quadrotor Control: An Experimental Evaluation, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 69, pp 812-816, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904251-143
The article was published as article 143 of the book CEAS – AIDAA Conference 2025
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
References
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