Drone with robotic arm achieves centimeter-level pollination for vertical farms

As natural pollinators decline, indoor vertical farms face a pollination crisis. Researchers from multiple institutions present an aerial manipulator that combines a quadcopter with a 2-degree-of-freedom robotic arm to precisely target and approach flowers without physical contact. The system integrates onboard RGBD cameras for perception, model predictive path integral (MPPI) control for UAV stabilization on a PX4 autopilot, and a lightweight manipulator for end effector positioning.

Evaluated in both MuJoCo simulation and real-world lab environments using a flower testbed, the prototype achieves centimeter-level positioning accuracy. The MPPI controller ensures consistent trajectory convergence, while the perception pipeline reliably localizes flowers. Although current work focuses on targeting and positioning, the platform is designed to accept future contactless end effectors such as acoustic pollen manipulators. This research, accepted at RCVE 2026, offers a practical foundation for robotic pollination in vertical farming.