Autonomous robotic plane flies indoors at MIT
August 10, 2012
For decades, academic and industry researchers have been working on control algorithms for autonomous helicopters — robotic helicopters that pilot themselves, rather than requiring remote human guidance. Dozens of research teams have competed in a series of autonomous-helicopter challenges posed by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI); progress has been so rapid that the last two challenges have involved indoor navigation without the use of GPS.
But MIT’s Robust Robotics Group — which fielded the team that won the last AUVSI contest — has set itself an even tougher challenge: developing autonomous-control algorithms for the indoor flight of GPS-denied airplanes. At the 2011 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), a team of researchers from the group described an algorithm for calculating a plane’s trajectory; in 2012, at the same conference, they presented an algorithm for determining its “state” — its location, physical orientation, velocity and acceleration. Now, the MIT researchers have completed a series of flight tests in which an autonomous robotic plane running their state-estimation algorithm successfully threaded its way among pillars in the parking garage under MIT’s Stata Center.
“The reason that we switched from the helicopter to the fixed-wing vehicle is that the fixed-wing vehicle is a more complicated and interesting problem, but also that it has a much longer flight time,” says Nick Roy, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics and head of the Robust Robotics Group. “The helicopter is working very hard just to keep itself in the air, and we wanted to be able to fly longer distances for longer periods of time.”
Video Source: MIT
Comments (5)
by DC Palmer
Does these advances help with autonomous cars? Seems like they would.
by james
that is adorable. and clever. nice one.
by asiwel
This actually is truly an awesome feat. And ALL computations, etc., were performed on-board, at the time of the flight?? Using an Atom processor? And maybe a bit of RAM? That boggles the mind. Do I understand from the video that this airplane flies around in a zone in front of it that is “safe” for a while, building an internal map of the area and when and where to go next? I wish my Roomba did a better job of that .. looks like it needs an upgrade.
by GatorALLin
fun to watch the on board camera and see this fly. I was immediately thinking of how the military could use these to gain visual mapping and enemy updates for the next ridge or how to quickly/quietly confirm if the enemy is up ahead. They must already be thinking of ways to have light weight solar panels to let them recharge for longer flights or get them up high enough to glide and not need battery power for much of their flights. Cool to see how fast their algorithms can use pattern recognition and still have it within limits of the fixed wing design. Keep up the great work at MIT! Maybe they could hook up with this guy at Penn? http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/vijay_kumar_robots_that_fly_and_cooperate.html
by Bri
Won’t be long till these type programs replace pilots. Remember that crash in upstate NY? The pilots made critical errors because they were tired. They were over worked by the airline company, as the company tried to compete. Ultimately it was the auto pilot handing control back to humans, that started thier wrong decisions. It’s not like robotics isn’t making inroads already. This type of development will translate back to commercial planes.