In the latest AUVSI, Association for Unmanned Systems International challenge 2009, the International Aerial Robotics Competition, the winning team’s robot was a helicopter that can navigate inside a building by itself and find and image a control panel, without the use of any GPS.

The hardware of the system was designed by a team in Germany, a startup company called Ascending Technologies, where the software was developed at MIT of USA. The helicopter is lifted with four propellers and has a carbon fiber frame. It has a laser scanner that has a range of 32 yards. The robot uses its scanner to map the surrounding area and also communicates constantly with remote computers via wireless cameras.

The goal of the international Aerial Robotics Competition is to meet a new challenge every year that can not be met with current technology. The winning team this year won a prize of $10,000. View original story here.

See video below…

  aerial, gps, mit