Flying MAV Navigates Without GPS (w/ Video)

November 2, 2009 by Lisa Zyga

The MAV uses lasers and new algorithms to estimate its relative position, build a map, and locate a clear path. Image credit: MIT Robust Robotics Group.

(PhysOrg.com) -- During the last several years, researchers have been building micro air vehicles (MAVs) that can autonomously fly through different environments by relying on GPS for navigation. Recently, a team of researchers has designed an MAV that can navigate unknown environments without GPS, which could enable it to overcome several limitations of GPS-dependent vehicles.

The new MAV is being designed by the Robust Robotics Group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Their work is motivated by the fact that, in some places, such as dense urban environments or indoors, GPS is noisy and maps are unavailable, which can cause MAVs to get lost, fly into dangerous regions, or collide with obstacles. Providing MAVs with a tool other than GPS to navigate these environments could help the vehicles avoid these problems.

Typically, high-precision non-GPS navigation units are too large, heavy, and expensive to be practical for flying vehicles. The MIT group took a different approach by developing new algorithms that allow MAVs to use onboard laser scanners and cameras to estimate their position, build maps of the environment and fly safely through.

In tests, the MAV could fly through cluttered offices, navigate unknown hallways, and find its way through unmapped environments by using its sensors to build its own map. The system estimates the vehicle's relative position, and can accurately identify a clear path for the vehicle to follow.

The non-GPS MAV has many of the same applications as other MAVs, such as search and rescue missions and civil engineering inspection. The researchers hope that, without its need for GPS, the new MAV could offer greater flexibility and robustness in some difficult environments.

More information and videos: MIT's Robust Robotics Group

© 2009 PhysOrg.com

• antialias_physorg - Nov 02, 2009
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  Impressive. Can it cope with mirrors in the hallways? Can it handle moving objects (dangling pipes, clouds of steam, moving animals/humans)? If it can this would make a great search/rescue bot in environments that might collapse and are deemed unsafe for human recue personell.
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