T2: Half-Day Tutorial

When robotics meet wireless communications: a tale of two interconnected worlds

Organizers and Lecturers
Daniel Bonilla Licea¹, Giuseppe Silano^2,3, Hajar El Hammouti¹, Martin Saska³, and Mounir Ghogho^1
1Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco 
²Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico S.p.A., Milan, Italy
³Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic 

Daniel Bonilla Licea is an Assistant Professor at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Rabat, Morocco, (email: ).
Hajar El Hammouti is an Assistant Professor at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco, (email: ).
Giuseppe Silano is a Tenured Research at the Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico S.p.A., Milan, Italy, and Associated Researcher at the Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic (email: ).
Martin Saska is a Full Professor at the Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic, (email: ). 
Mounir Ghogho is a Full Professor at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Rabat, Morocco, (email: )

Summary
The proposed tutorial introduces a unified and control-oriented framework for the design of communications-aware aerial robotic systems. Its central premise is that communication performance in Multi-Rotor Aerial Vehicles (MRAVs) cannot be treated independently of vehicle dynamics, actuation limits, and platform geometry. Instead, communication objectives must be explicitly embedded into modeling, planning, and control. 

The tutorial begins by revisiting MRAV-enabled wireless communication scenarios, highlighting how mobility, attitude variations, and airframe geometry directly influence channel characteristics, link directionality, and alignment-sensitive technologies. In contrast to conventional approaches that optimize only three-dimensional position, the tutorial emphasizes the necessity of full pose-aware formulations, particularly in emerging high-frequency and directional communication systems where antenna pointing and beam alignment are tightly coupled to vehicle orientation.

A key focus of the tutorial is the control-theoretic comparison between underactuated and omnidirectional (fully-actuated) MRAVs. For conventional platforms, translational motion requires tilting the vehicle, intrinsically coupling position and attitude and limiting the regulation of orientation-sensitive communication variables. The tutorial analyzes how this structural coupling constrains feasible trajectories and communication performance. It then introduces omnidirectional MRAVs, which decouple force and torque generation, allowing motion and orientation to be regulated more independently. This increased actuation authority fundamentally expands the set of feasible communication-aware control strategies.

Building on this modeling foundation, the tutorial develops control-oriented optimization formulations in which communication metrics, such as link quality, robustness, alignment accuracy, and security, are incorporated directly into trajectory and pose planning. Application-driven case studies illustrate the framework, including antenna pointing and beam alignment, cooperative jamming and physical-layer security, integration with reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, and sensing and localization tasks. These examples demonstrate how joint trajectory-pose planning enables communication-efficient yet dynamically feasible aerial behaviors that are unattainable with position-only approaches.

The final part of the tutorial addresses implementation challenges and open research directions, including robustness to disturbances, model uncertainty, scalability to multi-robot systems, and real-world deployment constraints. Throughout, the tutorial maintains a system-level perspective that connects actuation structure, dynamic feasibility, channel modeling, and communication performance.

Overall, the tutorial provides researchers and practitioners with a principled methodology for designing aerial robotic systems in which communication objectives are treated as intrinsic control variables rather than external constraints. By bridging aerial robotics, control theory, and wireless communications, it aims to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and to support the development of dynamically feasible, communication-efficient unmanned aerial systems.

Tutorial Objectives
The central objective of the tutorial is to establish a control-oriented framework for the integrated design of MRAVs as communication-enabled robotic systems, where communication objectives are embedded directly into modeling, planning, and control to ensure dynamic feasibility and practical implementability. 

Specifically, the tutorial aims to:

• Explain how vehicle dynamics, actuation structure, and geometry shape communication performance.
• Model and compare underactuated and omnidirectional MRAVs, clarifying their impact on controllability and orientation-sensitive tasks.
• Introduce mobility- and pose-aware channel modeling concepts.
• Develop pose-aware, control-oriented optimization strategies that jointly address trajectory and communication metrics under realistic constraints.
• Demonstrate, through representative applications, the advantages of increased actuation authority.
• Identify open challenges related to robustness, scalability, and real-world deployment.

Overall, the tutorial equips participants with the tools to treat communication objectives as intrinsic control variables in dynamically feasible aerial systems.

Key Topics
The key topics of the tutorial focus on the integration of wireless communication objectives into the modeling and control of MRAVs. The discussion emphasizes system-level coherence, dynamic feasibility, and control-oriented design. The main topics include:

• Dynamic Modeling and Actuation Structure: Modeling of underactuated and omnidirectional MRAVs, highlighting force–torque generation, controllability, and translation–attitude coupling effects.
• Mobility- and Orientation-Aware Channel Modeling: Analysis of how motion, pose, and airframe geometry affect wireless link quality, motivating pose-aware formulations.
• Communications-Aware Trajectory and Pose Optimization: Control-oriented frameworks embedding communication metrics (e.g., alignment, robustness, security) into joint trajectory–pose planning.
• Actuation-Driven Feasibility and Performance Limits: Comparative assessment of conventional and fully-actuated platforms for communication-sensitive tasks.
• Application Scenarios and Practical Considerations: Antenna pointing, physical-layer security, intelligent surfaces, sensing/localization, and robustness under real-world constraints.

Together, these topics establish a unified framework linking dynamics, actuation, communication modeling, and control design for communication-efficient aerial robotic systems.

Tutorial Format
The tutorial will consist of structured technical presentations supported by slides and selected multimedia material (e.g., simulation results and application case studies) to illustrate modeling, optimization, and control concepts in communications-aware MRAV systems

Target Audience
The tutorial is intended for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in aerial robotics, control systems, and wireless communications, as well as engineers and developers working on UAV platforms and networked aerial systems.

Tentative Outcome
Participants are expected to gain a solid understanding of the modeling and control challenges arising from the integration of communication objectives into dynamically constrained and underactuated aerial platforms, and how these challenges can be addressed through pose-aware, control-oriented design methodologies.

Material
Participants will receive lecture slides and curated research papers that support further study and practical implementation of communications-aware aerial robotic systems.

Schedule