Landing

[himszy]

Hi,

How do these things land? Do they do it themselves for do you do it?

Michael

[Dave Jones]

"How do these things land? Do they do it themselves for do you do it?"
Michael


They will all land there selves, sooner or latter.
The BIG question is do want to use it again?

[LukeZ]

There are some UAVs that can land autonomously in the traditional method but they are typically more sophisticated than the average hobby version. However, if you can program a very slow and steady decent rate, and you have a long, unobstructed area in which to land, the challenge is reduced.

I've always been interested in the method Art used with his GliderSonde (http://members.shaw.ca/sonde/index.htm), which was to measure wind speed and direction and then deploy a chute at the right altitude upwind such that it would float down and land in a specified area. He had varied success with the approach and perhaps the second version of his craft (http://artvb.oatmeal.dhs.org/index.php) will have even better luck.


Luke

[sesat]

Paparazzi lands, check out the video.


Ram.

[lvspark]

Have a link for that vid??

[kd7ost]

http://www.spyplanes.com/movies.html
http://www.micropilot.com/

Here are some videos from Spyplanes.com that show autonomous takeoff and landings. I'm not positive but I think they are using the micropilot system.

Autonomous "controlled" takeoff and landing makes our electronic packages very expensive. They also have limits like alluded to above. You need a big space with lots of room. The setup is time consuming. An RC pilot that practices diligently can take off and land in little tiny pieces of two track road, little patchwork fields after dropping over a fence or under power lines, etc. You can also go around again if things don't look right on approach. The human can make real time adjustments to their operational environment. No matter how far I want to move along with my own UAV work, I can't imagine hoping for autonomous takeoff and landing for myself. Maybe I'm a little old school on some of this stuff. I think taking the skilled, quick thinking, ability to adjust to unforeseen situation, pilot completely out of the UAV flight is a mistake with these small low range platforms. I realize that’s not a universal thought process though and that’s cool. Just my opinion.

Dan

[sesat]

http://www.nongnu.org/paparazzi/gallery_video.html

Paparazzi == cheap

[mlbco]

Dan,

I'm the president of the MLB company (www.spyplanes.com) and I just wanted to mention that we use our own flight control systems and software. We started building small autonomous aircraft in 1999, before Micropilot, Cloud Cap, etc.. had products on the market, so we made our own stuff from scratch. We also build our own airframes, ground station, catapult, tracking antenna, gimbal cameras, etc..

We've been doing a lot of cool stuff lately and I'll have to update the web site soon. Everything on the site is at least a year old. We also have a mirror site at www.mlbuav.com because we may want to drop the "spyplane" image. Prior to 9/11 nobody cared about our web site name, but now it seems to upset some people.

Steve Morris
MLB Co.

[kd7ost]

Steve,

Thanks for setting me straight on that. I have spent a good amount of time on your site perusing your video's etc. I don't know why, but I really like the video of dropping the vibration sensors. Something about watching those fall away just appeals to me.

I also read in an article recently that you guys (MLB) were part of a demonstration for the Forest Service. I work for the BLM in the remote weather sensing depot at the NIFC, National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. http://www.nifc.gov/ http://www.nifc.gov/nifctour/remsens.html I try like heck to push these guys to consider UAV technology in wildfire management. Be it running IR flights or loitering off a little ways with a low power communications repeater on board. There's also checking downwind conditions at prescribed burns for particulate matter. The list can go on. I'm glad that the FS is at least pursuing it. I had Greg Holland of Aerosonde up here last year to give a talk and next week Dave Perry of U-nav is putting on a flight demonstration. There seems to be a “brains in the can” mentality though and I don't know how to open those cans yet. Maybe if the BLM hears it often enough they'll get the idea too.

A private operator that I know of in Walla Walla Wa. is opening doors in his local area with taking real time digital pictures of range fires. Check out his galleries at http://www.rsnw.com/. He has other pictures and videos you can access at http://www.rcapa.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=667

Anyway, thanks again for reading my post and setting that straight Steve. It's nice to know folks of your caliber are here.

Dan

[dian]

In this site http://www.insitugroup.com/video.cfm look for
Webster Field Recovery
Dian

[HELModels]

I just saw a spot on TV about how the forest service is very interested in micro UAV of about 30 - 40" span for observing fires. They want an autonomous fleet that can talk to each other and not repeat coverage.
The spot featured BYU's contribution and they had a bunch of small sized planes that could fold up and with a snap of the wrist unfold. They showed one that appeared to have an autonomous takeoff, or maybe the pilot had the shakes or something. I guess the forest service wants to able to arm the smoke jumpers with something that can fly itself. That's the idea, now they are catching on.

The reporter editorialized at the end about how she would like to have one for herself and just fly it around for the fun of it. Some happened to be modified commercial ARF's.