Stanford University
HUMMINGBIRD
Aerospace Robotics Laboratory

HUMMINGBIRD Helicopter in autonomous flight.
HUMMINGBIRD with ground station GPS antenna.

Research Goals

Autonomous helicopters are a promising research area due to their advanced capabilities and great flexibility. Besides having the ability to hover, which allows one to operate in areas unaccessible to other vehicles, an unmanned autonomous helicopter can perform tasks which would be exceedingly difficult or hazardous for a manned vehicle. Possible applications for this technology include close-up inspection of power lines, terrain surveying, search-and-rescue missions, filming movies, and the investigation and clean-up of hazardous waste sites.

The ultimate goal of this research at Stanford is to demonstrate the practicality of using inexpensive robot helicopters to perform tasks without the need for highly trained human operators. This research will bring the concept of object-based, task-leve l control to a new and exciting application environment.

The HUMMINGBIRD Helicopter

HUMMINGBIRD is a small autonomous helicopter build by a team at the ARL. It consists of a heavily modified "60 size" remote control model helicopter with a 2.76 cu.in. engine. Navigational sensing is provided entirely by a pair of Trimble Global Positio ning System receivers operating using Differential Carrier Phase calculations. By using four separate antennas, HUMMINGBIRD is able to sense its attitude as well as position with GPS.

As an additional sensor, HUMMINGBIRD has an onboard camera system to gather additional information about its environment. Using this system, HUMMINGBIRD is capable of object location, identification, and retrieval using a retractable tether with a magnet ic manipulator.

HUMMINGBIRD's current flight capabilities include autonomous take-off, hover, trajectory following, and landing. The ability to fly autonomously and retrieve a small ferromagnetic disk was sufficient to win the 1995 International Aerial Robotics Competition sponsored by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). Stanford was the first and only team in the six years of this competition to successfully retrieve and move a target disk.

Additional Information

Related Projects at other Universities

For questions or comments contact: heli@sun-valley.stanford.edu

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