Publications

In our recent Nature article, we present “Bee-Nav”, a robot navigation strategy inspired by honeybees. It allows even very small robots to travel far away from home and return successfully, using a neural memory of only 42 kilobytes. In a new environment, the robot first performs a short learning flight near home, just as honeybees do. After that, it can travel away for hundreds of meters and still find its way back. Bee-Nav enables lightweight, safe robots to navigate on their own, opening the door to applications such as butterfly-like drones monitoring greenhouses. The research also offers new insight into how flying insects may find their way home.

Ou, Dequan, Hagenaars, Jesse J., Jankowski, Maciej R., Firlefyn, Michiel V. M., De Wagter, Christophe, Muijres, Florian T., Degen, Jacqueline, de Croon, Guido C. H. E.: Efficient robot navigation inspired by honeybee learning flights. In: Nature, vol. xx, iss. yy, 2026, ISBN: 1476-4687.

In our recent Nature article, we developed a new theory on how flying drones and insects can estimate gravity direction by combining visual motion sensing with a model of how they move. This discovery forms a parsimonious explanation of multiple phenomena observed in biology and is also an important step for the creation of autonomous tiny drones with even fewer sensors. 

Guido C. H. E. Croon, Julien J. G. Dupeyroux, Christophe De Wagter, Abhishek Chatterjee, Diana A. Olejnik, Franck Ruffier: Accommodating unobservability to control flight attitude with optic flow. In: Nature, vol. 610, no. 7932, pp. 485–490, 2022, ISSN: 0028-0836.
 

Nature Machine Intelligence Paper

Whereas insects seem to control their flight effortlessly with the help of optical flow, robots that attempt to do the same run into problems. We propose as a solution a learning process that allows robots to see distances by means of visual appearance (colors, textures, shapes). Would it be possible that insects do the same?

The article is featured on the cover of Nature Machine Intelligence. Cover reprinted by permission from Springer Nature.

G.C.H.E. de Croon, C. De Wagter, T. Seidl: Enhancing optical-flow-based control by learning visual appearance cues for flying robots. In: Nature Machine Intelligence, vol. 3, no. 1, 2021.

 

Science Robotics Paper

Our recent paper in Science Robotics presents the first swarm of tiny robots that can explore unknown environments completely by themselves. No map, no memory, and no GPS! The full paper can be found here.

K N McGuire, C De Wagter, K Tuyls, H J Kappen, G C H E de Croon: Minimal navigation solution for a swarm of tiny flying robots to explore an unknown environment. In: Science Robotics, vol. 4, no. 35, 2019.

 

Delfly Book

 

Our book about the DelFly has been published! The book introduces the topics most relevant to autonomously flying flapping-wing robots: flapping-wing design, aerodynamics, and artificial intelligence.

 

G C H E de Croon, Mustafa Percin, B D W Remes, Rick Ruijsink, C De Wagter: The DelFly - Design, Aerodynamics, and Artificial Intelligence of a Flapping Wing Robot. Springer Netherlands, 2016, ISBN: 978-94-017-9207-3.

 

Science paper

 

 

The Delfly Nimble was featured on the cover of Science Magazine in September 2018.

 

Matěj Karásek, Florian T Muijres, Christophe De Wagter, Bart D W Remes, Guido C H E de Croon: A tailless aerial robotic flapper reveals that flies use torque coupling in rapid banked turns. In: Science, vol. 361, no. 6407, pp. 1089–1094, 2018, ISSN: 0036-8075.

 

 

 

 

All publications

822 entries « 17 of 17 »

2009

Proceedings Articles

Kristien M E De Clercq; Roland De Kat; Bart Remes; Bas Van W Oudheusden; Hester Bijl

Flow Visualization and Force Measurements on a Hovering Flapping-Wing MAV `DelFly II' (Proceedings Article)

In: Proceedings of the 39th AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics San Antonio, US-TX, 2009.

(Abstract | BibTeX)

Masters Theses

M. J. Verveld

Optical Flow Based State Estimation for an Indoor Micro Aerial Vehicle (Masters Thesis)

Delft University of Technology, 2009, (Mulder, J.A. (mentor); Chu, Q.P. (mentor); de Wagter, C. (mentor)).

(Abstract | Links | BibTeX)

Kristien De Clercq

Flow visualization and force measurements on a hovering flapping-wing MAV 'DelFly II' (Masters Thesis)

Delft University of Technology, Delft, NL, 2009.

(Links | BibTeX)

2007

Proceedings Articles

C Wagter; JA Mulder

Vision-Only Control of a Flapping MAV on Mars (Proceedings Article)

In: S.N., (Ed.): Proceedings of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference & Exhibit, pp. 1–7, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc. (AIAA), United States, 2007, ISBN: AIAA-2007-6853, (AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference and Exhibit 2007 ; Conference date: 20-08-2007 Through 23-08-2007).

(Links | BibTeX)

2006

Journal Articles

C Wagter; JA Mulder

Vision-based guidance and awareness for autonomous UAV (Journal Article)

In: Journal of Gyroscopy and Navigation, vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 13–25, 2006, ISSN: 0869-7035.

(Links | BibTeX)

Proceedings Articles

A Muis; JMV Oliveira; JA Mulder

Development of a flexible flight test instrumentation system (Proceedings Article)

In: s.n., (Ed.): Proceedings of the Society of Flight Test Engineers 17th European Chapter Symposium 2006, Innovation in flight test engineering, pp. –, SFTE, 2006, (SFTE 17th European Chapter Symposium 2006 ; Conference date: 12-06-2006 Through 14-06-2006).

(Links | BibTeX)

2005

Proceedings Articles

Christophe De Wagter; J A Mulder

Towards vision-based uav situation awareness (Proceedings Article)

In: AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference and Exhibit, pp. 5872, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), San Francisco, CA, USA, 2005.

(Links | BibTeX)

C De Wagter; J A Mulder

Vision-Based Guidance and Awareness for Autonomous UAV (Proceedings Article)

In: Peshekhonov, Vladimir G (Ed.): Proceedings of the 12th Saint Petersburg International Conference on Intregrated Navigation Systems, pp. –, State Research Center of Russia "Elektropribor", Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2005.

(BibTeX)

JMV Oliveira; QP Chu; JA Mulder

Output error method and two step method for aerodynamic model identification (aiaa 6440) (Proceedings Article)

In: Proceedings of the AiAA GNC Conference and Exhibit, pp. –, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc. (AIAA), United States, 2005, (The AiAA GNC Conference and Exhibit ; Conference date: 15-08-2005 Through 18-08-2005).

(Links | BibTeX)

JMV Oliveira; QP Chu; JA Mulder

Estimating attitude using velocity aiding (Proceedings Article)

In: Peshekhonov, Vladimir G. (Ed.): Proceedings of the 12th Saint Petersburg International Conference on Integrated Navigation Systems, pp. 222–231, 2005, (The 12th Saint Petersburg International Conference on Integrated Navigation Systems ; Conference date: 23-05-2005 Through 25-05-2005).

(Links | BibTeX)

C Wagter; JA Mulder

Towards Vision-Based UAV Situation Awareness (Proceedings Article)

In: Proceedings of the AIAA GNC Conference, pp. –, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc. (AIAA), United States, 2005, (AIAA GNC Conference ; Conference date: 15-08-2005 Through 18-08-2005).

(Links | BibTeX)

C Wagter; JA Mulder

Vision-Based Guidance and Awareness for Autonomous UAV (Proceedings Article)

In: Peshekhonov, Vladimir G. (Ed.): Proceedings of the 12th Saint Petersburg International Conference on Intregrated Navigation Systems, pp. –, State Research Center of Russia "Elektropribor", 2005, (The 12th Saint Petersburg International Conference on Integrated Navigation Systems ; Conference date: 23-05-2005 Through 25-05-2005).

(Links | BibTeX)

2004

Proceedings Articles

M Mulder; TM Lam; C Wagter; MM Paassen; JA Mulder

Increasing the Safety of Operating Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Proceedings Article)

In: Proceedings of the Fourth Polish Avionics Conference, pp. –, 2004, (the Fourth Polish Avionics Conference ; Conference date: 17-09-2004 Through 19-09-2004).

(Links | BibTeX)

2003

Proceedings Articles

C De Wagter; A A Proctor; E N Johnson

Vision-only aircraft flight control (Proceedings Article)

In: Digital Avionics Systems Conference, 2003. DASC '03. The 22nd, pp. 8.B.2-81-11 vol.2, 2003.

(Links | BibTeX)

C Wagter; A Proctor; E Johnson

Vision-Only Aircraft Flight Control (Proceedings Article)

In: Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC), pp. 1–11, 2003, (niet eerder opgevoerd).

(Links | BibTeX)

0000

Journal Articles

K. N. McGuire; G. C. H. E. Croon; K. Tuyls

A comparative study of bug algorithms for robot navigation (Journal Article)

In: Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 121, 0000, ISSN: 0921-8890.

(Links | BibTeX)

E. J. J. Smeur; G. C. H. E. Croon; Q. Chu

Cascaded incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion for MAV disturbance rejection (Journal Article)

In: Control Engineering Practice, vol. 73, pp. 79–90, 0000, ISSN: 0967-0661.

(Links | BibTeX)

H. W. Ho; C. De Wagter; B. D. W. Remes; G. C. H. E. Croon

Optical-Flow based Self-Supervised Learning of Obstacle Appearance applied to MAV Landing (Journal Article)

In: Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 100, pp. 78–94, 0000, ISSN: 0921-8890.

(Links | BibTeX)

Xueren Li; Weijie Sun; Liwei Zhang; Bichen Shang; Ruipeng Xu; Jiyuan Tu; Yuanfu Pei; Xiang Fang

Cross-domain indoor performance prediction via in-context learning: A CFD-TabPFN-SHAP framework integrating air quality, energy, and thermal comfort (Journal Article)

In: Energy and Buildings, vol. 354, 0000, ISSN: 0378-7788, (Publisher Copyright: © 2026 The Authors.).

(Links | BibTeX)

Proceedings Articles

Mario Coppola; Guido C. H. E. Croon

Optimization of swarm behavior assisted by an automatic local proof for a pattern formation task (Proceedings Article)

In: Dorigo, Marco; Birattari, Mauro; Blum, Christian; Christensen, Anders L.; Reina, Andreagiovanni; Trianni, Vito (Ed.): Swarm Intelligence - 11th International Conference, ANTS 2018, Proceedings, pp. 123–134, Springer, 0000, ISBN: 978-3-030-00532-0, (ANTS 2018: 11th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence, ANTS 2018 ; Conference date: 29-10-2018 Through 31-10-2018).

(Links | BibTeX)

Borrdephong Rattanagraikanakorn; Alexei Sharpanskykh; Michiel Schuurman; Derek Gransden; Henk A. P. Blom; Christophe De Wagter

Characterizing UAS collision consequences in future UTM (Proceedings Article)

In: 2018 Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc. (AIAA), United States, 0000, (18th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference, 2018 ; Conference date: 25-06-2018 Through 29-06-2018).

(Links | BibTeX)

Christophe De Wagter; Matej Karásek; Guido de Croon

Quad-thopter: Tailless Flapping Wing Robot with 4 Pairs of Wings (Proceedings Article)

In: de Plinval J.-M. Moschetta G. Hattenberger, H. (Ed.): International Micro Air Vehicle Conference and Flight Competition 2017, pp. 249–256, 0000, (9th international micro air vehicles : Conference and flight competition, IMAV 2017 ; Conference date: 18-09-2017 Through 21-09-2017).

(Links | BibTeX)

822 entries « 17 of 17 »