Sandesh Thapa

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About

Sandesh Thapa is a leading researcher in the field of cooperative aerial robotics, with a primary focus on aerial manipulation and multi-agent systems. His work addresses the critical challenge of enabling teams of aerial manipulators—unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with robotic arms—to collaboratively transport and manipulate payloads. Thapa’s major contributions include the development of decentralized adaptive force-consensus control, which allows multiple aerial robots to coordinate their physical interactions with a shared object without requiring a central command. His most cited paper, "Cooperative Aerial Manipulation with Decentralized Adaptive Force-Consensus Control" (2019, 39 citations), lays the groundwork for stable, scalable multi-robot transport. In another influential work (2018, 16 citations), he modeled contact forces between agents and a flexible payload, advancing the theory of physical interaction in flight. Thapa also pioneered concurrent learning-based adaptive control for estimating unknown payload mass and drag forces during cooperative transport (2019, 12 citations), enabling robots to adapt to uncertain environments. His research is foundational for applications in construction, disaster response, and logistics, where multiple drones must handle heavy or awkward objects with precision and safety.