Autonomous helicopter flies beyond visual range
The maturity of ARCAA - CSIRO rotary UAV platform was on display last week as it successfully demonstrated Beyond Visual Range (BVR) flight with the remote control transmitter powered down and the helicopter flying autonomously out of range of the backup pilot. Flight trials also demonstrated various failsafe modes such as automatic return on loss of communications and in the event that the UAV finds itself "out of bounds" (ie. outside a pre-defined mission boundary). This is a significant milestone in the development of a dependable autonomous helicopter. ARCAA (the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation) is a joint venture of CSIRO and Queensland University of Technology.
The helicopter will be performing further BVR flights as part of the third phase of flight trials for the Smart Skies project which are scheduled in coming weeks.
Flying Beyond Visual Range (BVR) refers to flying the helicopter beyond the range at which the backup pilot can take over and safely fly the helicopter manually via remote control.
For information on the safety systems and procedures in place for our UAV flight tests, contact Dr Torsten Merz.
