Continuum manipulators mounted on multi-rotor UAVs enable compliant aerial manipulation, but payloads and propeller downwash amplify out-of-plane bending and twisting that degrade end-effector pose accuracy. To address this problem, we present a universal-joint-based continuum manipulator designed to improve resistance to out-of-plane deformation during aerial manipulation. The proposed design uses a tubular backbone with spring-reinforced universal joints and an integrated conduit for internal routing and fluid delivery. We evaluate the design in still air and under peak propeller downwash across varying payloads, and benchmark it against a prior Nitinol-backbone CM. Bench tests show improved resistance to out-of-plane deformation across all conditions. Under peak downwash, the proposed design reduces mean error by 2.5-4x in yaw, 2-45x in y-axis, and up to 5x in roll compared to the NiTi-backbone design. We further analyze hover stability through in-flight coupled-disturbance tests over varying payloads and actuation speeds, and demonstrate the system in water sampling, spot spraying, and object transport.
Aerial manipulation with multirotor platforms enables physical interaction in complex environments, but rotor-induced airflow remains a critical limitation for tasks involving airflow-sensitive targets or surroundings. This paper presents an optimization-based design framework fo…
Aerial robots are increasingly moving from remote observation toward physical interaction with objects, surfaces, structures, loads, and surrounding flows. This review argues that aerial manipulation cannot be understood as classical manipulation simply mounted on a flying base.…
Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) are emerging as core reasoning modules for embodied agents, yet it remains unclear how well general-purpose models can solve long-horizon embodied tasks from a single high-level instruction. We introduce MissionBench, a benchmark for missi…
Generalist robot manipulation policies have advanced rapidly, yet existing benchmarks remain limited in systematically evaluating their capabilities. Many rely on simple, short-horizon, or skill-narrow tasks with limited capability coverage, and are often conducted only in simula…
Vision Language Action (VLA) models unify visual perception, natural-language understanding, and action generation within a single foundation model, allowing a robot to follow instructions such as fold the towel or fly to the red building directly from camera images. Because VLAs…
Laboratory automation has made remarkable progress through robotic platforms and AI-driven scientific reasoning. However, many laboratory operations (e.g., solid--solid transfer) remain inherently dynamic and require real-time adaptation to different materials and experimental co…