Previous unmanned helicopters, like the Boeing A160 Hummingbird, could operate only in obstacle-free, pre-mapped environments. In June, engineers at Piasecki Aircraft and the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University broke that barrier when they equipped an A/MH-6 Little Bird helicopter with an autonomous guidance system and tested it on an unfamiliar course in Arizona. The copter was able to map its surroundings on the go, recognize obstacles such as power lines and people, choose a landing site amid cluttered terrain, and set down safely, all without human guidance. GPS, inertial sensors and laser scanners gathered information about the environment, while onboard mapping software generated a 3-D map of the terrain. One promising application of this technology is to assist medevac helicopter pilots.
www.ri.cmu.edu
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