American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 1 MODELING AND SIMULATION FOR SMALL AUTONOMOUS HELICOPTER DEVELOPMENT Eric N. Johnson * Paul A. DeBitetto * work conducted … … Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. Cambridge, Massachusetts USA Cambridge, Massachusetts USA now employed at Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems Marietta, Georgia USA Abstract* The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and The Boston University have …

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and The Boston University have cooperated to develop an Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV) that competed in and won the 1996 International Aerial Robotics Competition, sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems, International (AUVSI). Development of the vehicle continues to support ongoing research in the area of autonomous systems. A simulation capability has been developed to support the design, development, and test of the navigation, control, guidance, and vision processing sub-systems, as well as human-machine interfaces and procedures. The use of the simulation described in this paper is identified as a key factor in the success of the program at the competition and operations since. Introduction The International Aerial Robotics Competition, organized by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems, International (AUVSI), provides a unique opportunity to develop an autonomous vehicle system with many of the same features, components, and potential pitfalls as fielded unmanned vehicle systems - and to test that system in a real-life/competition environment. A team was formed between students, faculty, and staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. that competed in and won the 1996 competition, held in Orlando, Florida. * Member AIAA Copyright © 1997 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved. The competition consists of a 60 by 120 ft. field with five randomly placed drums [1]. Each drum has one of two kinds of labels. A contestant’s vehicle must start and finish in a 15 by 15 ft. area in a corner of the field, provide a map of the location and classification of the drums, and pick up a small disk on one of the drums. During a contest attempt, the vehicle and any ground equipment must operate completely autonomously, i.e. no human operators. The Draper small Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV) system consists of an aerial vehicle (Figure 1), a Ground Control Station (GCS), a vision processor, and a safety pilot. Figure 2 is a functional block diagram and shows how the aerial vehicle, GCS, and vision processor fit together. The aerial vehicle performs navigation and control on-board using a redundant suite of sensors including; a Differential GPS (DGPS) unit, an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), a sonar altimeter, and a flux compass. Guidance and operator control happens on the GCS. The helicopter also carries a camera and transmitter that provides real-time video images to the ground. A ground based vision processor then converts the image data into drum position and classification estimates. The contest field size requirements, the restricted take-off and landing area, a desire for flight characteristics that allow manual control, and the payload capacity desired led to the selection of a helicopter for the aerial vehicle. The aerial vehicle is an off-the-shelf radio-controlled helicopter with a six foot rotor diameter produced by TSK, called the Black Star. The helicopter has an empty weight of 15 lb. and a payload capacity exceeding 9 lb. The helicopter is powered by a 32 cc gasoline engine.

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