Robocopter

conditions. SEBASTIAN SCHERER

We’re standing on the edge of the hot Arizona tarmac, radio in hand, holding our breath as the helicopter passes 50 metres overhead. We watch as the precious sensor on its blunt nose scans every detail of the area, the test pilot and engineer looking down with coolly professional curiosity as they wait for the helicopter to decide where to land. They’re just on-board observers. The helicopter itself is in charge here. Traveling at 40 knots (75 kph), it banks to the right. We smile: the aircraft has made its decision, probably setting up to do a U‐turn and land on a nearby clear area. Suddenly, the pilot’s voice crackles over the radio: “I have it!”

That means he’s pushing the button that disables the automatic controls, switching back to manual flight. Our smiles fade. “The aircraft turned right,” the pilot explains, “but the test card said it would turn left.” The machine would have landed safely all on its own. But the pilot could be excused for questioning its, uh, judgement. For unlike the autopilot that handles the airliner for a good portion of most commercial flights, the robotic autonomy package we’ve installed on Boeing’s Unmanned Little Bird (ULB) helicopter makes decisions that are usually reserved for the pilot alone. The ULB’s standard autopilot typically flies a fixed route or trajectory, but now, for the first time on a full‐size helicopter, a robotic system is sensing its environment and deciding where to go and how to react to chance occurrences.

It all comes out of a program sponsored by the Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center, which paired our skills, as roboticists from Carnegie Mellon University, with those of aerospace experts from Piasecki Aircraft and Boeing. The point is to bridge the gap between the mature procedures of aircraft design and the burgeoning world of autonomous vehicles. Aerospace, meet robotics.

A Fire Scout hovers over the flight deck of the USS McInerney in preparation for a counter-drug operation in Latin America.

CREDIT: ALAN GRAGG /DVIDS

The need is great, because what we want to save aren’t the salaries of pilots but their lives and the lives of those they serve. Helicopters are extraordinarily versatile, used by soldiers and civilians alike to work in tight spots and unprepared areas. We rely on them to rescue people from fires, battlefields, and other hazardous locales. The job of medevac pilot, which originated six decades ago to save soldiers’ lives, is now one of the most dangerous jobs in America, with 113 deaths for every 100,000 employees. Statistically, only working on a fishing boat is riskier.

These facts raise the question: why are helicopters such a small part of the boom in unmanned aircraft? Even in the US

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