A Low-Cost, Miniaturized Control System for Autonomous Flight

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are being used extensively by the military for operations in theatre, but they are largely remotely piloted.In particular, for smaller UAVs, added autonomy would make them much more useful.Current FAA regulations make commercial operation of UAVs very difficult and expensive, and a prerequisite for changing the status quo would be added autonomy.The development of small, low-cost, low-power navigation systems that can impart key functions necessary for a UAV to safely navigate a diverse and potentially congested airspace is needed.Key functions include obstacle avoidance, dynamic mapping and navigation, and automated takeoff and landing.Creare has teamed with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to develop an advanced navigation system that takes advantage of recent developments in small, low-power, low-cost sensor technology, and improved performance of computer hardware and combines these with the latest developments in vision-aided navigation, adaptive terrain mapping, vision-based obstacle avoidance, and biological-inspired flight control algorithms.We propose to enhance the development of a small, lightweight, low-power, and low-cost navigation suite demonstrated in Phase I into a complete system able to provide navigation in an a priori, unknown, dynamic environment to allow safe autonomy to small UAVs.