MIT profs create autonomous UAVs

By Conrad Quilty-Harper | November 26, 2006

Filed under: Robots

Creating a robot that can manage to fly around a room on its own without hitting a wall is a mean feat to pull off, but that’s exactly what a team of professors at MIT have managed to do. Their multiple-UAV test platform is capable of complex tasks like following moving ground-based objects with little or no direct control from a human — yup, unfortunately that geek dream of a cockpit will no longer be required if these guys get their way. The current test setup is made up of $700 four-rotorblade helicopters, monitored by networked computers, which could theoretically allow a single person — or even a bored student with an internet connection — to control several UAVs at a time. Current flying drone systems require a team of trained personnel to keep a single UAV airborne and on target, so this endeavor is certainly a step up in software terms. How well the test system will transition from tracking radio controlled cars in a lab to lets say, a stolen car going at 125MPH, remains to be seen.

Read - Videos of the UAV in action
Read - The Boston Globe

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