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arXiv · 2604.21078

Impact-Aware Model Predictive Control for UAV Landing on a Heaving Platform

Jess Stephenson·Melissa Greeff
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Abstract

Landing UAVs on heaving marine platforms is challenging because relative vertical motion can generate large impact forces and cause rebound on touchdown. To address this, we develop an impact-aware Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework that models landing as a velocity-level rigid-body impact governed by Newton's restitution law. We embed this as a linear complementarity problem (LCP) within the MPC dynamics to predict the discontinuous post-impact velocity and suppress rebound. In simulation, restitution-aware prediction reduces pre-impact relative velocity and improves landing robustness. Experiments on a heaving-deck testbed show an 86.2% reduction in post-impact deflection compared to a tracking MPC.

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Jess Stephenson, Melissa Greeff. 2026-04-22. Impact-Aware Model Predictive Control for UAV Landing on a Heaving Platform. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.21078

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