# OmniNxt: A Fully Open-source and Compact Aerial Robot with Omnidirectional Visual Perception

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.20085 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.20085/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 29 Mar 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Don't Run with Scissors: Pruning Breaks VLA Models but They Can Be Recovered](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.08464/) (2025)
- [Fly360: Omnidirectional Obstacle Avoidance within Drone View](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.06573/) (2026)
- [EdgePoint2: Compact Descriptors for Superior Efficiency and Accuracy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.17280/) (2025)
- [A 360-Degree Vision Dataset for Learning Yaw Control on GPS-Denied Micro-UAVs in Disaster-Response-Relevant Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.19866/) (2026)
- [MFVINS: Multiple Fisheye Camera-Based Visual Inertial System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.08626/) (2026)
- [Learning Vision-Based Agile Gap Traversal: Differentiable Simulation with a Warm-Started Critic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.30696/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Adopting omnidirectional Field of View (FoV) cameras in aerial robots vastly improves perception ability, significantly advancing aerial robotics's capabilities in inspection, reconstruction, and rescue tasks. However, such sensors also elevate system complexity, e.g., hardware design, and corresponding algorithm, which limits researchers from utilizing aerial robots with omnidirectional FoV in their research. To bridge this gap, we propose OmniNxt, a fully open-source aerial robotics platform with omnidirectional perception. We design a high-performance flight controller NxtPX4 and a multi-fisheye camera set for OmniNxt. Meanwhile, the compatible software is carefully devised, which empowers OmniNxt to achieve accurate localization and real-time dense mapping with limited computation resource occupancy. We conducted extensive real-world experiments to validate the superior performance of OmniNxt in practical applications. All the hardware and software are open-access at https://github.com/HKUST-Aerial-Robotics/OmniNxt, and we provide docker images of each crucial module in the proposed system. Project page: https://hkust-aerial-robotics.github.io/OmniNxt.