Low-cost flight control system for a small autonomous helicopter

In this paper we describe a low-cost flight control system for a small (60 class) helicopter which is part of a larger project to develop an autonomous flying vehicle. Our approach differs from that of others in not using an expensive inertial/GPS sensing system. The primary sensors for vehicle stabilization are a low-cost inertial sensor and a pair of CMOS cameras. We describe the architecture of our flight control system, the inertial and visual sensing subsystems and present some control results.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: ICRA
• Authors: Jonathan M. Roberts, Peter I. Corke, Gregg D. Buskey
• Keywords: Control System, ICRA 2003, Low-cost Inertial Sensor, Low-cost flight Control, Robotics