Development of an intelligent unmanned helicopter

This paper describes the current status of and recent results from LIFE and the Sugeno Laboratory project on autonomous control of an unmanned helicopter. A fuzzy-logic-based control system has been developed that enables single inputs (e.g. voice commands) to replace the aircraft's normal set of rudder, collective, longitudinal cyclic, and lateral cyclic control inputs. This development has enabled us to demonstrate that a novice can use such a system to effectively control an unmanned helicopter without prior knowledge of the vehicle's flight dynamics. A set of sensors including an inertial flight measurement unit, microwave speed meters, a laser height meter, and a magnetic azimuth sensor have been installed on the aircraft to provide measurements of position, attitude, and higher-order kinematic information. In addition, a movable CCD camera and on-board image processing unit have been added to extract information about the helicopter's visual environment.<
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