# FalconWing: An Ultra-Light Indoor Fixed-Wing UAV Platform for Vision-Based Autonomy

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.01383 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.01383/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 13 of its 28 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 May 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [ImageNet-21K Pretraining for the Masses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.10972/) (2021)
- [Nerfstudio: A Modular Framework for Neural Radiance Field Development](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04264/) (2023)
- [INeRF: Inverting Neural Radiance Fields for Pose Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.05877/) (2020)
- [Vision-Only Robot Navigation in a Neural Radiance World](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.00168/) (2021)
- [Reconciling Reality through Simulation: A Real-to-Sim-to-Real Approach for Robust Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03949/) (2024)
- [6DGS: 6D Pose Estimation from a Single Image and a 3D Gaussian Splatting Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.15484/) (2024)
- [SOUS VIDE: Cooking Visual Drone Navigation Policies in a Gaussian Splatting Vacuum](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.16346/) (2024)
- [Visual Servoing Approach for Autonomous UAV Landing on a Moving Vehicle](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.01272/) (2021)
- [Visual Tracking with Intermittent Visibility: Switched Control Design and Implementation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.08144/) (2024)
- [FalconGym: A Photorealistic Simulation Framework for Zero-Shot Sim-to-Real Vision-Based Quadrotor Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.02198/) (2025)
- [Global Incremental Flight Control for Agile Maneuvering of a Tailsitter Flying Wing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.13218/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [FalconTrack: Photorealistic Auto-Labeled Perception and Physics-Aware Vision-Based Aerial Tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.29783/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce FalconWing, an ultra-light (150 g) indoor fixed-wing UAV platform for vision-based autonomy. Controlled indoor environment enables year-round repeatable UAV experiment but imposes strict weight and maneuverability limits on the UAV, motivating our ultra-light FalconWing design. FalconWing couples a lightweight hardware stack (137g airframe with a 9g camera) and offboard computation with a software stack featuring a photorealistic 3D Gaussian Splat (GSplat) simulator for developing and evaluating vision-based controllers. We validate FalconWing on two challenging vision-based aerial case studies. In the leader-follower case study, our best vision-based controller, trained via imitation learning on GSplat-rendered data augmented with domain randomization, achieves 100% tracking success across 3 types of leader maneuvers over 30 trials and shows robustness to leader's appearance shifts in simulation. In the autonomous landing case study, our vision-based controller trained purely in simulation transfers zero-shot to real hardware, achieving an 80% success rate over ten landing trials. We will release hardware designs, GSplat scenes, and dynamics models upon publication to make FalconWing an open-source flight kit for engineering students and research labs.