Related Sections: Robots Vehicles
MIT helicopter flies through a house using laser guidance
Little battery powered electric helicopters are lots of fun, but they tend to crash into stuff without an expert hand on the controller. One solution is to make a helicopter that can guide itself using GPS, but this doesn't work too well indoors where there are no useful GPS signals.
Boosting their ultra tech-nerd credentials to the highest level possible, the Robust Robotics Group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) built this quad rotor heli that uses a laser sensor to draw a map of obstacles and room boundaries, allowing it to fly safely without human input.
Why do I get the impression that the US military would love to talk with these guys?
MIT TechTV, via MAKE Online
By xaosbringer at 2:18 AM ON 10/18/09
I see it now. Smart drones loaded with light armour low calibre round / hypo dart weaponry sneaking about the streets at night tagging and baggin bad guys
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By thisisonlyatest at 4:35 PM ON 10/18/09
If I was in the military, I'd want one of these in my team.
I actually want something like this in certain video games (like GTA series) to perform some of the RC missions.
By Anonymous at 11:09 PM ON 10/18/09
I see Skynet......
By marcintosh at 7:58 AM ON 10/19/09
I agree that this is very cool tech, but I could see it being easily defeated by a well placed baseball bat. We're not talkin' about a golden snitch here. That thing lumbers along like a zombie pigeon.
By Greymattersplat at 9:21 AM ON 10/19/09
It's not about the helicopter, it's about the guidance system. They created one capable of doing something that has NEVER been done before, in that it can actually drive itself. Perfect that, and you can put it on whatever little helicopter (or heck, lots of other vehicles...like, I dunno, cars?) you want, not just the one you built for proof of concept.
By Joe at 2:51 PM ON 10/19/09
I see something like this being used to map caves. Or better yet find someone trapped in a mine.
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