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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: 163
Comments: 3
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.
In a First, Full-Sized Robo-Copter Flies With No Human Help
By Olivia Koski July 14, 2010 | 8:12 am | Categories: Drones
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#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.
__________________________________________________________ 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
I don't believe that. The technology has been around for over twenty years now.
Obama is the miscegenated bastard of a white communist whore. True story.
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#2. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
"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 
#3. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
It was the first fully autonomous flight of a full-sized chopper, ever.
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