Original title: Local Path Planning and Obstacle Avoidance for an Omnicopter Platform
Mikolaj Helinski, Spilios Theodoulis, Mahmoud Hamandi, Abdullah Mohamed Ali +2 · September 2026
An omnicopter is a drone that can move in any direction without turning first. To avoid obstacles while moving, this system scans nearby areas and tests possible moves quickly. It uses simple sphere shapes to represent the drone, saving computing power. When an unknown obstacle appears, the system changes its focus between reaching the goal and staying safe.
Imagine walking through a crowded party while carrying a tray of drinks. You need to weave between people without spilling anything, but sometimes you have to prioritize dodging a sudden movement over heading straight for the exit. In this paper, the drone is like you with the tray, and Agile Mode is your brain deciding whether to risk a spill to keep moving or stop to avoid a collision.
Drones operating in cluttered spaces like warehouses or cities need to avoid obstacles in real-time to prevent accidents. This technology helps them do that more reliably, making autonomous flight safer for tasks like delivery or inspection.
The abstract highlights limitations in highly constrained geometries, with success rates of 79.3% for off-centre obstacles and 41.4% for centred obstacles, and the evaluation is based on simulation only.
Ask anything about this paper. Answers come from its abstract, and say so when the abstract doesn't cover your question.
Local Path Planning and Obstacle Avoidance for an Omnicopter Platform — Mikolaj Helinski, Spilios Theodoulis, Mahmoud Hamandi et al.
Abstract licence: CC0
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.