Unmanned aerial vehicles are becoming more and more popular with the military forces all around the world. But the only hindrance is that these UAVs need skilled operators. Now, MIT researchers have developed a multiple-UAV test platform which can be controlled by anyone with a speedy Internet connection. The interesting part is that these unmanned helicopters can stay in air for around a week and come back to the base for recharging their batteries. Jonathan How, an associate professor at MIT cited:
Ultimately, when you are taking these devices out into real-world applications, you want people to perform a task like surveillance of the border. You don’t want them spending a lot of time figuring out how to fly the vehicle.
Each UAV that costs about $700 is networked to a PC. The test platform comprises five minuscule “quadrotor” helicopters with four whirling blades. There is a indoor positioning system and many tiny autonomous ground vehicles that can be tracked by the UAVs. A video camera attached to the UAV makes use of a visual target to find out the vehicle’s distance to the landing platform. This tech can be further used to land these UAVs on a ship at sea.
Via: Primidi
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