A 3-gram, 34mm, single-motor underactuated micro aerial vehicle.
Paper under review.
At just 3 g and 34 mm, UNO is, to our knowledge, the world's smallest self-contained, untethered aircraft.
UNO’s underactuated design achieves closed-loop 3D position control using only one motor. Its self-spinning motion effectively provides an additional control degree of freedom, enabling directional control and precise waypoint following.
UNO features the world’s smallest nRF54L15-based module for real-time, bidirectional wireless communication, enabling remote waypoint commands and live onboard flight-data streaming. All electronics are integrated onto a 9 × 9 mm four-layer PCB, populated on both sides and weighing just 0.1 g. With no onboard IMU, UNO relies entirely on optical state estimation.
UNO’s circular shroud protects the propeller and redirects impact forces, allowing the aircraft to rebound from collisions and continue toward its commanded waypoint.
Its compact 34 mm footprint allows UNO to fly through narrow openings in both vertical and horizontal orientations.