Sihao Sun

Sihao Sun

Researcher in Robotics

Delft University of Technology

Biography

I am a scientist focusing on the planning, estimation, and control of aerial robotic systems. My research has been published in top-tier journals such as Science Robotics, Nature, and IEEE Transactions on Robotics. I am also the recipient of a Best Paper Award of IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), and serve as an Associate Editor for RA-L since 2023.

I am currently the Principal Investigator of the VENI project “Accurate Aerial Manipulation”, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) Talent Program, and embedded in the Autonomous Multi-robots Lab (AMR), Department of Cognitive Robotics (CoR) at Delft University of Technology.

I earned my PhD in Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft in 2020 under the supervision of Dr. Coen de Visser and Prof. Guido de Croon, with a doctoral doctoral thesis addressing fault-tolerant control problems for aerial robots. From November 2020 to December 2021, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Robotics and Perception Group (RPG) at the University of Zurich under the guidance of Prof. Davide Scaramuzza. From August 2022 to November 2023, I held another postdoctoral position in the Robotics and Mechatronics (RaM) group at the University of Twente, collaborating with Prof. Antonio Franchi.

Interests

  • Aerial Robotics
  • Aerial Manipulations
  • Multi-robot Systems
  • Robotics Perception
  • Incremental Nonlinear Control

Experience

  • Postdoc researcher, 2022-2023

    Univeristy of Twente, with Prof. Antonio Franchi

  • Postdoc researcher, 2020-2021

    University of Zurich, with Prof. Davide Scaramuzza

  • PhD in Aerospace Engineering, 2016-2020

    TU Delft, with dr. Coen de Visser

News

  • Oct 29, 2025. Our paper on “Agile and cooperative aerial manipulation of a cable-suspended load” is finally published on Science Robotics 🎉🎉🎉.

  • Sep 26, 2025. We have a paper published on Nature🎉🎉🎉. This work is led by collaborators from WINDY Lab, Westlake University, addressing the challenge of downwash interference when two aerial manipulators are in vertical-stack proximal flights.

  • Aug 30, 2025. Congratulations to my MSc student, Shantnav Agarwal, for successfully defending his thesis about Cooperative Aerial Manipulation with Imitation Learning with 🎉Cum-Laude distinction🎉

  • Aug 1, 2025. Our paper on Multi-agent RL for Aerial Manipulation has been accepted by CoRL! Check it out

  • July 21, 2025. Congratulations to my MSc student Jack Zeng for successfully defending his thesis about Cable-suspended Aerial Manipulation with Multi-Agent RL with Cum-Laude ditinction! 🎉🎉

Research Projects

Accurate Aerial Manipulation under Uncertainties

This project performs mechatronics design and developes novel algorithms to increase the accuracy of aerial robotic manipulators under dynamical uncertainties.

Cooperative Aerial Manipulations of Cable-Suepended Loads

This project develops algorithms to lift and control the orientation of a cable-suspended load using multiple aerial robots.

Agile Flight Control for Drones

This project aims at designing flight controllers to achieve agile flight for drones, with the aim of improving its performance in time-critical missions.

Quadrotor Fault Tolerant Flight Control

This project leads to a set of fault-tolerant control algorithms for a quadrotor with motor failures in realistic scenarios, such as withstanding strong winds up to 10m/s, and recovery from extreme conditions.

Aerodynamic Modeling Identification for Multi-Rotor Drones

This project aims at obtaining a set of aerodynamic model for drones using system identification and machine learning technique.

High Efficiency Air Cargo Design

A student project with the aim of desining an unmanned air-cargo with high aerodynamic and structral efficiency.

Publication list

Agile and Cooperative Aerial Manipulation of a Cable-Suspended Load

We propose a trajectory-based framework for agile and robust manipulation of cable-suspended loads using multiple quadrotors.
Sihao Sun, Xuerui Wang, Dario Sanalitro, Antonio Franchi, Marco Tognon, Javier Alonso-Mora
PDF Project Video
Agile and Cooperative Aerial Manipulation of a Cable-Suspended Load

Decentralized Aerial Manipulation of a Cable-Suspended Load using Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

A fully decentralized algorithm enabling multiple UAVs to collaboratively manipulate a cable-suspended load using multi-agent reinforcement learning.
Jack Zeng, Andreu Matoses Gimenez, Eugene Vinitsky, Javier Alonso-Mora, Sihao Sun
PDF Code Project Video
Decentralized Aerial Manipulation of a Cable-Suspended Load using Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

Proximal cooperative aerial manipulation with vertically stacked drones

We have addressed the long-standing challenge of controlling and exchanging tools between two multirotor UAVs operating in close vertical proximity.
Huazi Cao, Jiahao Shen, Yin Zhang, Zheng Fu, Cunjia Liu, Sihao Sun, Shiyu Zhao
Project Nature
Proximal cooperative aerial manipulation with vertically stacked drones

Uncertainty Modeling Enabled Meta Adaptive Control for Aerial Manipulators

Meta Adaptive Control for Aerial Manipulators.
Shiqi Gao, Haichao Hong, Sihao Sun, Lingkun Luo, Shiqiang Hu
PDF Project DOI
Uncertainty Modeling Enabled Meta Adaptive Control for Aerial Manipulators

Nonlinear MPC for Quadrotor Fault-Tolerant Control

We study the performance of using nonlinear MPC on quadrotor fail-safe problem. The result is amazing.
Nan Fang, Sihao Sun, Philipp Foehn, Davide Scaramuzza
PDF Project Video
Nonlinear MPC for Quadrotor Fault-Tolerant Control

A Comparative Study of Nonlinear MPC and Differential-Flatness-Based Control for Quadrotor Agile Flight

We systematically compare two state-of-the-art flight controllers for quadcopter agile flights, nonlinear MPC and differential-flatness-based controller.
Sihao Sun, Angel Romero, Philipp Foehn, Elia Kaufmann, Davide Scaramuzza
PDF Project Video
A Comparative Study of Nonlinear MPC and Differential-Flatness-Based Control for Quadrotor Agile Flight

Model Predictive Contouring Control for Near-Time-Optimal Quadrotor Flight

This work proposes a novel control methods for quadcopter agile flights using model-predictive-contouring control.
Angel Romero, Sihao Sun, Philipp Foehn, Davide Scaramuzza
PDF Project Video
Model Predictive Contouring Control for Near-Time-Optimal Quadrotor Flight

Performance, Precision, and Payloads: Adaptive Nonlinear MPC for Quadrotors

We propose L1-MPC, an adaptive-model-predictive control framework showing impressive performance against model uncertainties and disturbances.
Drew Hanover, Philipp Foehn, Sihao Sun, Elia Kaufmann, Davide Scaramuzza
PDF Project Video
Performance, Precision, and Payloads: Adaptive Nonlinear MPC for Quadrotors

Autonomous Quadrotor Flight despite Rotor Failure with Onboard Vision Sensors Frames vs. Events

This algorithm uses only onboard vision sensors to control a quadrotor after complete faliure of a rotor, without the aid of GPS, UWB, or other external sensors.
Sihao Sun, Giovanni Cioffi, Coen de Visser, Davide Scaramuzza
PDF Code Project Video IEEE Spectrum
Autonomous Quadrotor Flight despite Rotor Failure with Onboard Vision Sensors Frames vs. Events

Incremental Nonlinear Fault-Tolerant Control of a Quadrotor With Complete Loss of Two Opposing Rotors

This work, for the first time, applies Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion controller on an under-actuated control system, namely a quadrotor with complete loss of two opposing rotors. A high-speed wind-tunnel flight test demonstrates the robustness of this method.
Sihao Sun, Xuerui Wang, Qiping Chu, Coen de Visser
PDF Code Project Video
Incremental Nonlinear Fault-Tolerant Control of a Quadrotor With Complete Loss of Two Opposing Rotors

High-speed flight of quadrotor despite loss of single rotor

We propose a flight controller to achieve high-speed flights of a quadrotor with one rotor entirely off. Flight tests in the wind tunnel show robustness of our controller in the presence of significant aerodynamic effects.
Sihao Sun, Leon Sijbers, Xuerui Wang, Coen de Visser
PDF Project Video IEEE Spectrum
High-speed flight of quadrotor despite loss of single rotor

Upset Recovery Control for Quadrotors Subjected to a Complete Rotor Failure from Large Initial Disturbances

We introduce a flight controller that can recover a quadrotor with one rotor complete off from arbitrary initial orientations and body rates.
Sihao Sun, Matthias Beart, Bram Strack van Schijndel, Coen de Visser
PDF Project Video ICRA online presentation Master Thesis
Upset Recovery Control for Quadrotors Subjected to a Complete Rotor Failure from Large Initial Disturbances

Quadrotor gray-box model identification from high-speed flight data

In this work, we presented a gray-box aerodynamic model for a quadrotor identified from windtunnel high-speed flight data, using a step-wise regression algorithm.
Sihao Sun, Coen de Visser, Qiping Chu
PDF Code Project Conference Version
Quadrotor gray-box model identification from high-speed flight data

Quadrotor safe flight envelope prediction in the high-speed regime: A Monte-Carlo approach

A sampling based approach for estimating the reachable set of a quadrotor in high-speed regime to predict its (dynamic) flight envelope.
Sihao Sun, Coen de Visser
PDF Slides
Quadrotor safe flight envelope prediction in the high-speed regime: A Monte-Carlo approach

Quadrotor fault tolerant incremental sliding mode control driven by sliding mode disturbance observers

This work introduces a novel control method named Incremental Sliding Mode Control, which greatly reduces model dependency and improves the robustness against uncertainties. The algorithm has been validated in a quadrotor fault-tolerant control problem in real flight.
Xuerui Wang, Sihao Sun, Erik-Jan van Kampen, Qiping Chu
PDF Project
Quadrotor fault tolerant incremental sliding mode control driven by sliding mode disturbance observers