Antonio E. Jimenez-Cano

About

Antonio E. Jimenez-Cano is a robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of aerial robotics, manipulation, and infrastructure inspection. Over the past decade, he has made significant contributions to the development and control of aerial manipulators — unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with robotic arms capable of physically interacting with their environment. His landmark 2013 paper on controlling multi-link aerial robotic arms, which has accumulated over 258 citations, established foundational methods using Variable Parameter Integral Backstepping controllers, shaping how researchers approach aerial manipulation to this day. Jimenez-Cano has consistently pushed this work toward real-world utility, particularly in the critical domain of infrastructure inspection. His studies on contact-based bridge inspection multirotors and fully actuated aerial manipulators — garnering 78 and 58 citations respectively — address the aerodynamic and control challenges of robots physically touching bridge and tunnel surfaces for structural health assessment. More recently, he has expanded into multi-robot aerial systems, developing the innovative Fly-Crane and G-Fly-Crane platforms for collaborative cable-suspended manipulation and construction tasks. His portfolio also includes contributions to range-only SLAM for autonomous navigation. Collectively, his research advances the practicality and precision of aerial robots operating in demanding, contact-rich environments.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Control of an aerial robot with multi-link arm for assembly tasks

   258 citations · 2013
2. 2
   Aerial manipulator for structure inspection by contact from the underside

   108 citations · 2015
3. 3
   Contact-Based Bridge Inspection Multirotors: Design, Modeling, and Control Considering the Ceiling Effect

   78 citations · 2019
4. 4
   Fully-Actuated Aerial Manipulator for Infrastructure Contact Inspection: Design, Modeling, Localization, and Control

   58 citations · 2020
5. 5
   Precise Cable-Suspended Pick-and-Place with an Aerial Multi-robot System

   25 citations · 2022
6. 6
   Indirect Force Control of a Cable-Suspended Aerial Multi-Robot Manipulator

   20 citations · 2022
7. 7
   Modeling and Design of Multirotors with Multi-joint Arms

   6 citations · 2019
8. 8
   An Efficient Fast-Mapping SLAM Method for UAS Applications Using Only Range Measurements

   5 citations · 2016
9. 9
   Centralized Control of Multirotors with Manipulators

   3 citations · 2019

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links