Robot helicopter takes flight navigation to a new low - tech - 10 November 2008 - New Scientist

Description

Most UAVs do not have the capacity to sense and avoid obstacles at all - a significant barrier to their being allowed to fly in civilian airspace.

But now engineers at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, have modified a commercial civilian UAV helicopter made by Yamaha to be able to see obstacles it encounters.

The helicopter's "eye" is a custom-built 3D laser scanner, which sweeps an oval path ahead of the 3.5-metre long craft. The scanner can detect objects as hard to see as power lines from 150 metres away.

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