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Robot Planes and Helicopters Taught Aerobatics

Posted by Zonk on from the educating-the-bots dept.

holy_calamity writes "MIT and Georgia Tech researchers are teaching small robotic aircraft some impressive stunts. MIT's RC plane's can take off and land from vertical perches (video), while the Georgia Tech helicopter can land on slopes of up to sixty degrees, by flipping backwards into freefall as it lands (video)."

11 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. One of the best Helicoptor pilots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8t41avFuCc

      Alan Szabo Jr

    1. Re:One of the best Helicoptor pilots by chuckymonkey · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That was amazing. The military needs to figure out how he does all of that. While a human would not be able to take the forces something acting like that would exert, a remotely controlled fighting craft would be incredible. Back on topic that's some pretty interesting stuff. Most UAV require a landing strip like an airplane to take off and land on, if they could just do what these do it would make them much more portable and much easier to use in the field. Amazing world that we live in these days. My dad couldn't imagine having a phone in his car when he was a kid in the 50's much less aircraft that could fly themselves around.

      --
      "Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
    2. Re:One of the best Helicoptor pilots by stoolpigeon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Some of the UAVs that you see in the media a lot like the predator and global hawk do need some space to operate, due to their scale. But I don't think it is safe to say that most UAVs are that large or require a runway. There is a whole range of Miniature UAVs that can do some slick stuff. I guarantee if you're seeing it on youtube and thinking of possible military applications, the military has probably already made that connection some time ago. There are a lot of people, some of them pretty smart, who have dedicated their lives to this kind fo thing.

      --
      It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
    3. Re:One of the best Helicoptor pilots by jcr · · Score: 4, Informative

      UAVs have to make a trade-off of size for endurance. A UAV like the predator can stay aloft for hours, but something small enough to hand-launch would be impressive if it could even carry enough fuel to stay aloft for half an hour.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    4. Re:One of the best Helicoptor pilots by superwiz · · Score: 3, Funny

      Why is Wagner playing in my head while I watch this?

      --
      Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
    5. Re:One of the best Helicoptor pilots by Sparr0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      onboard avionics consisted of just a three-axis gyro based autopilot (in case of control loss). cameras were medium-resolution still and low-resolution radio-transmitted video, visible light only (well, as little IR as I could manage, you know how CCDs are). gps was only for tagging with the camera, a small non-interactive reciever.

      oh yeah, and i flew well outside visual range. thats what the video camera is for. radio and reciever were tested to 1.5 miles, probably good to at least 2 on a good day.

      the army can have as many as they want for $2000 apiece. screw hardening, the enemy can knock down 99% of them and they will still be cheaper than any "real" military UAV ive heard of.

  2. Not RC by SnoopJeDi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I see nothing that suggests that the MIT plane is remote-controlled. It was inspired by a pilot's skill on an RC model.

    Unless the controls are issued by a remote computer?

    1. Re:Not RC by The+Raven · · Score: 3, Informative
      It is absolutely remote controlled. If you RTFA, it states:

      testing indoors with off-board control systems and sensors. "The bit in the air is the cheapest part of these experiments," he says.

      The controls, cameras, everything is not on the plane. The plane/heli are just simple cheap RC toys, controlled remotely by expensive processors and sensors.
      --
      "I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
  3. I, for one, ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...welcome our small robotic aircraft overlords!

    But, I suspect that we'll soon be chased around by flying advertisements!

    [mechanical voice]: "Wait, Mr. Smith, stop running! I've got to tell you about Splam!"

    (Sound of one flying ad machine shooting down another)

    [second mechanical voice, swooping in]: "Don't listen to that guy! Splastic is the new Splam!!!"

  4. milestone by giampy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The videos are very interesting, especially the second one from the group of Jonathan How. The developmen of control laws that are able to fully control the aircraft flying in those conditions, (not to mention being able to handle the transitions between such flying modes) is a hard problem.

    This is due to the fact that the overall system is highly nonlinear, scarcely controllable, (since the control surfaces have little to no effect), and also not very well known in such conditions.

    Whenever they can handle this problem in a systematic and rigorous way, (that is without ad-hoc quick fixes), i'd say that a milestone in control science will have been reached.

    --
    We learn from history that we learn nothing from history - Tom Veneziano
  5. Can I get that software... by kclittle · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... in the flying car I made a $10K deposit on?

    --
    Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.