[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help] 

Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

This Can Create Endless Green Energy WITHOUT Electricity

Geoengineering: Who’s Behind It and How We Stop It

Pam Bondi Ordered Prosecution of Dr. Kirk Moore After Refusing to Dismiss Case

California woman bombarded with Amazon packages for over a year

CVS ordered to pay $949 MILLION in Medicaid fraud case.

Starmer has signed up to the UNs agreement to raise taxes in the UK

Magic mushrooms may hold the secret to longevity: Psilocybin extends lifespan by 57% in groundbreaking study

Cops favorite AI tool automatically deletes evidence of when AI was used

Leftist Anti ICE Extremist OPENS FIRE On Cops, $50,000 REWARD For Shooter

With great power comes no accountability.

Auto loan debt hits $1.63T. 20% of buyers now pay $1,000+ monthly. Texas delinquency hits 7.92%.

Quotable Quotes from the Chosenites

Tokara Islands NOW crashing into the Ocean ! Mysterious Swarm continues with OVER 1700 Quakes !

Why Austria Is Suddenly Declaring War on Immigration

Rep. Greene Wants To Remove $500 Million in Military Aid for Nuclear-Armed Israel From NDAA

Netanyahu Lays Groundwork for Additional Strikes on Iran: 'We Didn't Deal With The Enriched Uranium'

Sweden Cracks Down On OnlyFans - Will U.S. Follow Suit?

Joe Rogan CALLS OUT Israel's Media CONTROL

Communist Billionaire Accused Of Funding Anti-ICE Riots Mysteriously Vanishes

6 Factors That Describe China's Current State

Trump Thteatens to Bomb Moscow and Beijing

Little Bitty

Vertiv Drops After Amazon Unveils In-House Liquid Cooling System, Marking Pivot To Liquid

17 Out-Of-Place Artifacts That Suggest High-Tech Civilizations Existed Thousands (Or Millions) Of Years Ago

Hamas Still Killing IDF Soldiers After 642 Days

Copper underpins every part of the economy. If you want to destroy the U.S. economy this is how you would do it.

Egyptian Pres. Gamal Abdel Nassers Chilling Decades-Old Prediction About Israel-Palstine Conflict.

Debt jumps $366B in one day.

Proof that Israel Has Lost the War: Sizable Portion of Military, Intelligence, Energy, and R&D facilities Destroyed

French police raid offices of Marine Le Pens far-right Rassemblement National


Science/Tech
See other Science/Tech Articles

Title: In a First, Full-Sized Robo-Copter Flies With No Human Help
Source: Wired
URL Source: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/201 ... pter-flies-with-no-human-help/
Published: Jul 14, 2010
Author: Olivia Koski
Post Date: 2010-07-14 15:01:54 by Prefrontal Vortex
Keywords: None
Views: 139
Comments: 3

In a First, Full-Sized Robo-Copter Flies With No Human Help

By Olivia Koski July 14, 2010 | 8:12 am | Categories: Drones

In mid-June, a single-turbine helicopter took off from a test field in Mesa, Arizona, avoided obstacles during flight, scoped out a landing site and landed safely. It’s the kind of flight choppers have made tens of thousands of times before. Except this time, the helicopter did it entirely on its own — with no humans involved. It was the first fully autonomous flight of a full-sized chopper, ever.

The trial, overseen by Army-funded research team from Carnegie Mellon and the Piasecki Aircraft Corporation, has sent robo-choppers into the sky before (see the video, after the jump). And this Boeing-modified MD530F helicopter, known as the Unmanned Little Bird has been making flights since 2004. But this was its first test without a pre-programmed flight path.

Unmanned smart choppers could help the military better handle dangerous territory and low-visibility conditions to evacuate wounded soldiers or bring supplies to the front lines. In areas with bad or nonexistent roads (like Afghanistan), helicopters are sometimes the only mode of transport. Finding a place to safely land in a dust storm, on rugged terrain, or with bullets flying at you presents a major challenge for pilots. Artificially intelligent helicopters could help pilots stake out good landing spots, or perhaps even allow them to stay safely behind at base.

While on-the-fly autonomous navigation is a first for a full-sized helicopter, the technology developed by Sanjiv Singh and his team from Carnegie Mellon is not so different from what they used to outfit a Chevy Tahoe to win Darpa’s 2007 Urban Challenge. “It’s not as if we started from scratch,” says Singh. “A lot of the technology was there already.”

To make the helicopter self-flying, the team installed a scanning LIDAR that uses lasers to collect range information from its surroundings. The laser data is processed by a computer that relays commands to the helicopter controllers.

The data also creates a 3-D map that enables the helicopter to “see” the ground or obstacles in the air — and then adjust its trajectory accordingly. The algorithms helped the helicopter miss a tall tower during one of the tests. In another trial, the team deceptively instructed the helicopter to land on top of a car, but the chopper was not fooled, resolving instead to land on flat ground nearby.

With its ability to avoid obstacles while it’s in flight, the system has more in common with autonomous SUVs that maneuver through rough terrain than high-flying remote-controlled flying drones like the Global Hawk. Like many military umanned aerial vehicles, the Global Hawk is fixed-wing, and avoids obstacles by simply flying where there aren’t any – at 65,000 feet.

“There aren’t a lot of autonomous helicopters,” Singh observes. The army recently scrapped its order of Northrop Grumman’s remote-controlled MQ-8 Fire Scout in favor of the fixed-wing RQ-7 Shadow.

With the cancellation of Future Combat Systems — the military’s plan to roboticize the military by 2020 — it’s tough to say what the future of autonomous helos looks like. But a defining moment in robo-choppers appears to have been reached last month in Mesa.


Poster Comment:

In another trial, the team deceptively instructed the helicopter to land on top of a car, but the chopper was not fooled, resolving instead to land on flat ground nearby.

Right on the newlyweds.

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

#1. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)

It'll be a hit in Peoria. Just what FedGov needs to handle skirmishes with domestic "revolutionaries" and other malcontents who don't accept the New Order.

__________________________________________________________
Obama is the miscegenated bastard of a white communist whore. True story.

“The best and first guarantor of our neutrality and our independent existence is the defensive will of the people…and the proverbial marksmanship of the Swiss shooter. Each soldier a good marksman! Each shot a hit!”
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941

X-15  posted on  2010-07-14   15:59:56 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)

we will never win trying to fight robots AND the Imperial VOLUNTEER Merc. Military head on. we have to fight the Masters where they will have true fear in their personal lives. IMO


"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams

Rotara  posted on  2010-07-14   16:07:49 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)

It was the first fully autonomous flight of a full-sized chopper, ever.

I don't believe that. The technology has been around for over twenty years now.

TooConservative  posted on  2010-07-14   17:08:19 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest


[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help]