Advances in autonomous
helicopters have been many over the years, but as far as we can tell, there's essentially no limit to how awesome they can get. MIT's recently developed an autonomous,
robotic helicopter which is also able to navigate itself intelligently through a changing environment. The helicopter, which is equipped with a dual-camera array and a laser scanner, maps its terrain in real time, identifying changes along the way. An integrated autonomous exploration module allows the heli to interact with the changing, unknown environment it is mapping. The helicopter was shown off at the AUVSI 2009 International
Aerial Robotics Competition, completing five missions -- a feat not before seen in the 19-year history of the show. Check out the very educational video after the break.
posted Oct 16th 2009 1:01PM
Terminator 3 was alright, but nothing compared to the first two. And the last one was just silly. Am I right?
I dont know, but what i do know is that you are off subject.
It moves like an Exocomp....
So... they created Manhacks. Great.
/shudder, god i hated those things.
don't worry. just keep a couple of crowbars around the house from now on.
Look at this, and compare it to an old toy called x-ufo.. OMG ITS A X-UFO FAKE!
Well done team!
Impressive work!
They didn't build it though, another company spent 7 years developing the platform before the MIT team put some sensors on and programmed it.
I think programming is the part that is most challenging. Otherwise its just another remote controlled toy. How many algorithms have you written lately?
What an exciting development in robotics. All jokes aside, this could lead to some very promising tech.
Yes, and I see a real opportunity here...
For my video production skills! Seriously. Dry toast, anyone?
How about some music... some lighting... a professional voice talent... editing?
Are you insane? This is the scariest thing I've seen all day!
Skynet is pleased.
Gene Simmons: Been there, done that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaoMG0KDJ0M
This was a new competition. The previous years were GPS based outdoor activities (traverse a route, locate a building, find an opening in the building, enter the building). This was the first year AUVSI did all indoor, GPS denied, locate missions. A much different challenge, but definitely a difficult challenge. Congrats MIT.
lucky for them none of the rooms were constructed out of mirrors, eh?!
That'd be one hell of a way to screw with something like this.
Don't mention that until it's weaponized fool.
The military will obviously be all over this, if they haven't already got something better (which they likely do)
Of course, the problem with weapons are that if they are to be effective, they need to be heavy. And that's going to be very hard on the batteries :).
YYYEEEEESSSS. This is awesome.
Creepy.
Straight outta Metal Gear Solid story line.
:(
This is definitely a great technological achievement. Current Helicopter Developers/Engineers should definitely reconsider their future designs.
Really Impressive
I think they had Will Hunting working on this one
Good.
I'm sure they forgot to mention in the potential applications section the fact hat someone is going to want to put guns on it. Also the way it maps different spaces reminds me of a RTS game. And also, that insect-y, buzzing sound is creepy. Imagine those things chasing after you--with guns on 'em.
Half Life 2 style... could be fun.
Guns are heavy, need ammo, and have recoil, so I'm more worried about taser on them and them flying around tazing you autonomously if you do anything 'wrong'.
Throw a blanket at it. Game over.
how long can it stay aloft for?
I'm going to guess 10 minutes.
Depends also on what battery technology the owner has access too I imagine, sony or toshiba or someone can put a fuel cell in, you and me a couple of AA's :/
awesome :)
i want one
pretty slick
can it dodge flying bullets?
"No, avis. I’m trying to tell you that when it's ready, it won’t have to."
Anyone else feel anxious watching this video? Need a crowbar and a gravity gun.
Can we have eagle skin on it so that it will look like a bird?
Good work, MIT.
I'm a bit more impressed by the berkeley c3uv group:
Controlling a team of real UAVs with an iPhone over the web:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9c4I8A0q8Q
There's also some great work in search algorithms:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slhknj7fRc0&feature=PlayList&p=D4AE2A0AF63AF2F5&index=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_tuL1fySMc&feature=PlayList&p=D4AE2A0AF63AF2F5&index=2
Those little MIT 'coptors don't look like they would fare too well in a breeze, or for longer than 15 minutes of flight time.
Lemme guess... you went to Berkeley and not MIT, right?
That's the thing, though -- they're not meant for too much of a breeze scenario, it seems like. Most of the demonstrations were indoors, and a major potential use case for this tech would be rescue scouting operations in dangerous environments (unstable buildings, etc.) They actually also show it outside a building, scanning up the side wall, and it seems fairly stable, but I don't think that's really the intent. One of the major innovations is the fact that it works incredibly well under GPS-deprived conditions -- inside being the biggest thing. With a radio link to transmit the model and other sensory data (application specific sensors, such as detecting gases or listening for survivors) would allow rescue workers to remotely search hazardous environments faster than humans could, without putting the rescue workers themselves in danger. And in the case they lose the bot (something falls on it, etc.), they still have more data than they had before, and at relatively little cost (compared to that of a human life). The MIT tech is interesting, but also built to tackle a completely different engineering challenge.
You say it might be breeze sensitive, but in this video it does fly outdoor, on a gray day in massachusetts, and they push it with a stick and it handles it, so after seeing that the initial thoughts I had along those lines were somewhat eased and I became more optimistic.
I guess that takes care of the nuclear bunker busters. Send in a few of these with some gas releasing mechanism and you're good to go. Map out the whole cave and identify location of the bad guy.
I'm assuming you are talking about games now.
Please don't ruin it by saying you aren't.
Anyone know why it has three up-pointing rotors and one down?
Because the laser scanner that has a (roughly) 180 degree view is facing that direction so they inverted that rotor so it wasn't in the way
difference between japanese robots and americans... ours knows how to think and learn, theirs is all pre-programmed
well then you didn't realize yet that their aim and approach is different from ours. they are currently interested in the technological aspect like movements and not primarily on the intelligence. most of the tech they use for these robot-gizmos dancing around are actually just proof of concept prototypes, take the robot legs for an example .. they try to improve them so that later you can create robotic wheelchairs where the paralyzed or old ones can "walk" around with their new legs... so you see it's all just about what you focus on. And I could imagine that the intelligence software is probably funded by some government organization or a company that is close to the government and since you've got already alot of helicopters or drones remote controlled the implementation shouldn't be that difficult.
now just make it marginally bigger like 10 times and mount one or two guns and one or two rockets and you've got the terrorists new nightmare and 10 years later we get our nightmare due to growing intelligence we gave them since they helped very successfully to get rid of the bad guys ... but well you know where this story goes...
Japanese and Korean robots smile in creepy ways, and dance and mix drinks.
German ronots are sex toy robots.
American robots are designed to seek out, and kill "tragets."
Hahaha... so true. But what about the russians?
It means that American robots are the ones that will actually be useful in the real world.
Holy awesome. I shudder to think how expensive that helicopter is though, I see a custom carbon fiber frame, 4 brushless motors, not to mention the stereo cams and mini 360 degree laser scanner...
Let's ramp this technology up and have insect sized autonomous robots that can fly into a building and select a target and deliver a deadly sting. Something really creepy perhaps deliver a swarm of these things;)
Argg.. Applied for MIT, got rejected... and is angry at them for making my horrible fate end up at State Engineering School. But if they are making things like this, I'LL BE BACK FOR GRAD SCHOOL...