Dynamic presentations by Sebastian Thrun and Nicholas Roy have alerted and informed CAFE Foundation’s Electric Aircraft Symposia attendees of highly sophisticated efforts to allow autonomous full-size automobiles and miniature helicopters to navigate through or over unfamiliar terrain. Using clues from lasers, infrared sensors, inertial guidance systems and sometimes GPS coordinates, the vehicles use control algorithms to guide themselves around obstacle-strewn courses. As noted in Science Daily and the The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s press office this week, “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.” Mini-copters have shown an amazing ability to not only navigate, but to perform complex tasks in swarms, such as building large architectural assemblies – all without human intervention (other than, one assumes, someone pushing a “go” button). MIT’s Robust Robotics Group has …
The Autonomous Swift
There were two presentations on the Swift ultralight flying wing at this year’s Electric Aircraft Symposium. Dr Steve Morris of the MLB Company related the flight testing of a manned version of the craft, which had been and is being modified by a group of NASA researchers. That NASA team presented material on the unmanned version of the Swift, as modified to allow autonomous flight. Three industrious and inventive souls, Corey Ipollito, Paul Espinosa, and Al Weston, presented their work on the Swift Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), which they are undertaking with a small team of experts as a mostly volunteer effort at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. Ilan Kroo’s famous design has had many variants, including several others electrically powered, but none quite as sophisticated, and none with the range of missions envisioned for the craft by this trio. The airplane, test flown in December 2009 by Brian Porter for MLB, carried its human payload for …
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