M.I.T. researchers fooling around with a shocky...

[Pjotrrr]

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers 'having fun' with our precious planes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuSqwb13iw0


'Sure, your average helicopter can land in a whole mess of places, but what if you really need to squeeze that sucker onto a steep incline? Normally, you'd be out of luck if the slant were anything more than a measly 20-degrees, but some Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have managed something a bit more extreme. Eric Feron, an aerospace engineer, and colleague Selcuk Bayraktar have created a new breed of robot helicopter which can land, or "perch," at inclines up to 60-degrees. On a similar tip, MIT researcher Jonathan How has fashioned another unique unmanned aircraft which can take off and land from a "prop hang" position, wherein the plane stands on it's tail in midair. The hope is that these new technologies will help get aircraft into -- and back out of -- complicated spots with a new level of maneuverability. Also, the engineers probably just love blowing people's minds. Check the videos after the break to experience the gravity-defying moves yourself.'

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/23/researchers-create-perching-robotic-aircraft/

[Trisquire]

Interesting. Is it your understanding that those three circles around the room were also autonomous? Or just the hovering?

I'll be even more impressed when they program it to do the whole F3P-A sequence.

Tom

[MIT KID]

I was involved in the project off and on for about a year. The whole sequence is automated, and they're using a VICON motion capture system to collect all the state information for the aircraft (same as was used for the gollem cgi stuff) . This gives sub centimeter accuracy at 200Hz, and allows for all the computation to be done on the ground. Very cool lab to be a part of, here's some more information on the various projects: http://vertol.mit.edu/

-Adam

[Trisquire]

Good work Adam. It occurred to me that if you can capture all the information on a plane's characteristics, you should also be able to create a flight simulator that is right on the money.

Tom