10 Years of Cutting-Edge Autonomous Drone Research at CTU FEE: Let's Recall the Most Significant Milestones
Date: April 10, 2025
Ten years ago, on January 1, 2015, Martin Saska founded the Multi-Robot Systems (MRS) research group at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU FEE). The group focuses on the development and deployment of collaborative aerial robots. Over the past decade, the Department of Cybernetics has built a team of over 60 members—including senior researchers, postdocs, engineers, PhD candidates, and students—creating a top-tier environment for research on autonomous UAVs (drones) equipped with onboard artificial intelligence.
From the outset, the MRS team has concentrated on deploying drones in real-world, often extreme conditions where conventional technologies fail. By integrating research with practical experiments, the group has achieved a number of globally unique results.
Key Milestones of the Multi-Robot Systems Group:
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2015 – First MPC controller running directly on a UAV in the world.
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2016 – First flight of a visually stabilized formation without GPS in challenging outdoor environments.
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2017 – Deployment of a fully autonomous UAV team in a UNESCO-listed historic church. Victory in the MBZIRC competition due to reliable and efficient team cooperation.
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2018 – Development of the intelligent UVDAR sensor, which became an international standard for relative UAV localization.
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2019 – First flight of a UAV swarm inside a forest without external localization.
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2020 – Release of the open-source MRS system, now used by over 2,000 researchers worldwide. Second victory in MBZIRC.
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2021 – Development of the MRSX500 system for deployment in underground spaces. Success in the prestigious DARPA SubT Challenge (2nd place in the virtual segment, 6th place in the systems segment).
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2022 – Deployment of the NMPC controller outside the laboratory and real-time planning of minimum-time trajectories for agile flights.
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2023 – Demonstration of the fastest UAV landing system in strong winds and over open water.
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2024 – First fully autonomous mapping of a 10 km route without GNSS; victory in the SPRIND FUNKE competition in Germany.
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2025 – Qualified among the top 14 teams (out of 210) in the global Autonomous Racing League competition in Abu Dhabi.
Successful Students
We are also very proud of our students' achievements. Notably, Pavel Petráček received a prestigious award in March 2025 as part of the Werner von Siemens Award 2024 for his dissertation. Overall, students and supervisors from CTU FEE have received 8 out of 20 awards.
Other Awards in Previous Werner von Siemens Award Editions:
- Ondřej Procházka and Tomáš Báča – 2nd place for diploma thesis (2024)
- Vojtěch Spurný – 2nd place for dissertation and for the Industry 4.0 topic (2023)
- Robert Pěnička – 2nd place for contribution in the field of Industry 4.0 (2020)
What's Next?
A decade of effort by the MRS group has yielded visible results not only in research but also in educating a new generation of experts. We look forward to another decade full of challenges, innovations, and collaboration.
