Marc Emmanuelli

Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology

Papers

Total Citations

171

H-Index

About

Marc Emmanuelli is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of robotics, origami engineering, and aerial vehicle safety. His most celebrated contribution, "Rotorigami: A rotary origami protective system for robotic rotorcraft" (2018), has garnered 171 citations and fundamentally reimagined how drones can survive collisions. By integrating origami-inspired deployable structures directly onto rotorcraft, Emmanuelli created a lightweight, passive protective system that unfurls upon impact—enabling drones to navigate cluttered environments without bulky sensors or complex avoidance algorithms. This work bridges mechanical design and practical robotics, offering a paradigm shift for search-and-rescue, infrastructure inspection, and autonomous flight in confined spaces. Beyond Rotorigami, his research explores adaptive morphologies for resilient aerial platforms, emphasizing simplicity and robustness over computational complexity. Emmanuelli’s impact is evident in the growing adoption of origami-based safety mechanisms in commercial and research drones, and his work has been featured in top robotics venues. For students and researchers, he exemplifies how creative mechanical design can solve real-world constraints, proving that sometimes the most elegant solutions are folded into existence.